UK confirms 2040 date for petrol and diesel car end

The UK government has resisted calls to bring forward its planned end date for the sale of new petrol and diesel fuelled vehicles and re-affirmed its 2040 deadline.

But the country has set a new 2030 interim goal for at least half of new cars being "ultra low" emission vehicles by that year.

The government has faced repeated calls from environmental groups to move its deadline for ending the sale of conventionally fuelled vehicles forward from 2040, after countries such as Norway and India set more ambitious targets of 2025 and 2030, respectively.

But the government today confirmed the 2040 goal in its long-awaited transport decarbonisation strategy. By that year, every new car or van sold should have zero emission capabilities, with the majority being officially zero emitting vehicles. And every new unit sold must be a zero emitting vehicle by 2050.

The government also set a new interim target for at least 50pc, and ideally 70pc, of new car sales to be ultra low emission vehicles by 2030. Only around 2pc of sales are currently of such units.

The government said that it recognises the need to improve current infrastructure to encourage electric vehicle (EV) uptake over the coming years and pledged £1.5bn of funding to support the sector. The country's power transmission network will also require upgrades to cope with the resulting increase in demand, it said.

"Our vision is to have one of the best EV infrastructure networks in the world. This means current and prospective EV drivers being able to easily locate and access EV charging infrastructure that is affordable, efficient and reliable… Local [power] network infrastructure will in some areas need to be reinforced to transmit power to where it is needed" the government said.

The transport sector is the UK's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, having held this position since 2016.