The car industry in the UK has been lobbying the government not just for a weakening of the ZEV mandate (what is it? Check out our explainer here), but for the 2035 ban on combustion engines to be ditched entirely. 

That’s according to Tom Riley, who writes a newsletter called Fast Charge on Substack, who has got his hands on a series of letters written by UK car company bosses and the SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders), the organisation that represents their interests. 

Riley got the information through freedom of information requests to the Department for Transport, with letters going back months that show the extent to which the industry is trying to turn back the clock on emissions reductions. 

The car companies criticised the UK government for diverging from European Union policy, which has already watered down the zero emission rules and left a petrol and diesel ban open ended. The companies are also pushing ‘green steel’ and e-fuels as an alternative to banning petrol and diesel engines.

SMMT boss Mike Hawes wrote to the transport secretary Heidi Alexander – who is still in position now following Andy Burnham’s takeover of power – back in June to tell her that he thought the ZEV mandate needed urgent review, saying that the UK’s future depended on it. He had previously publicly criticised the mandate back in March. 

Perhaps most shocking was the letter from Stellantis boss Eurig Druce, who sells Peugeots, Citroens, Vauxhalls and Fiats in the country among other brands, to the transport secretary in April, where he described the government’s current position on the ZEV mandate as “intolerable”.

He also complained the growth of Chinese brands in the market despite benefiting from its own Chinese brand, Leapmotor, which took nearly 7,000 sales in the first half of 2026. 

The UK car industry has been working hard to try and water down the requirement to sell more EVs, clearly putting its own commercial interests ahead of environment, and with transport secretary Heidi Alexander remaining in place and business secretary Jonathan Reynolds back in the job he previously held in 2025, it looks like the momentum is with the industry. 

The Department for Transport still stands by its 2035 ban on pure petrol and diesel engines according to its latest statements, but it is leaving itself some wriggle room to change the path to get there. 

Polestar is among the few carmakers to publicly remain in support of the ban, while a recent report showed the extent of global lobbying by Japanese carmakers, particularly Toyota, against electric vehicles.