The boss of Nissan, Britain’s largest car manufacturer, has pledged to only sell electric vehicles in the UK by 2030 and said “the world needs to move on” from cars with internal combustion engines, in an implicit rebuke to the government’s decision to delay a ban on petrol and diesel cars.
Makoto Uchida, Nissan’s president and chief executive, said all its new models in Europe would be electric as there could be “no turning back” on a shift to greener technologies.
His comments come after the government pushed back a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 to 2035. Rishi Sunak said he would not impose “unacceptable costs” on households to achieve net zero by 2050.
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Ford warned that the delay would undermine the “ambition, commitment and consistency” of policymaking but Toyota described it as a “pragmatic” decision.
Nissan employs about 7,000 people across three sites in the UK, including its factory in Sunderland.
Uchida said more than a million customers had bought one of its electric vehicles, adding: “We are at the tipping point of consumer adoption for EV. There’s no going back. The world needs to move on from [the internal combustion engine].
“From this point onward, every single new Nissan model launched in Europe will be fully electric. It’s the right thing to do.”
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Car manufacturers have been seeking to match Tesla with their ambitions for selling electric vehicles. Nissan had previously pledged to generate 98 per cent of its sales from electric cars by the end of its 2027 fiscal year. Renault, Ford and Stellantis have announced plans to be fully electric in Europe by 2030, while Volvo has said it will only sell electric cars worldwide by 2030.
Colin Walker, head of transport at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said: “Nissan’s decision is based on a clear understanding that the European and UK markets are shifting to electric vehicles, and shifting fast.
“Companies will be making decisions on where to build the electric vehicles of the future, and where to build the battery factories and other elements of the supply chain that are needed to make it all happen.
“One of the things these companies will be looking for is stable government policy, something that the UK has not provided in recent days with its U-turn on the petrol and diesel phase-out date.”
Stephen Phipson, chief executive of the industry body Make UK, said: “A lot of companies will have ploughed time and money into net zero as a priority and the delay throws extra uncertainty into what is already a very unstable business environment. It will hit small businesses in the automotive supply chain particularly hard as they move from making internal combustion parts to becoming EV suppliers and sends entirely the wrong signal.”
Ford criticised the government’s policy change last week after investing £430 million into its transition to electric vehicles.
