London wants to ban petrol and hybrid cars from getting minicab licences from 2028 – Transport for London has opened a consultation on proposed changes that would see private hire vehicles going electric. 

Currently the cars from the likes of Uber, Bolt and Addison Lee, as well as locally run firms around the city, must be ‘zero emission capable’ with a range of at least 10 miles, so the proposed changes will be a significant move for the capital’s taxi drivers. 

The proposal will come into effect in July 2028, and all newly licensed private hire vehicles will have to be fully electric and less than 10 years old. 

Cars that are wheelchair accessible will have a two-year moratorium – they’ll need to be fully electric from 2030. 

TfL has also said that it plans to stop issuing new licences for cars being retrofitted with LPG or natural gas systems. 

The existing fleet of minicabs will naturally be aged out of the London taxi fleet as they reach 10 years old, at which point they’ll no longer be eligible for a TfL licence. 

The consultation has already opened, and will close to submissions on 2 December before Transport for London outlines its final plans for cutting private hire emissions. 

In its rationale for the proposals, TfL said that “Road transport is one of the main sources of air pollution and carbon emissions,” and highlighted the fact that private hire vehicles in the city travel almost three times the distance each year of an average car. 

The transport regulator has also flagged the fact that the real world emissions of PHEVs are significantly higher than what they achieve in lab test conditions, strengthening the case for switching to fully electric. 

Clean air campaigners have welcomed the move, but minicab drivers will be wary of the increased cost of switching to a new electric car in the same year that the government plans to introduce a new 3p per mile charge for EVs. 

The rules won’t apply to London’s official taxis, but Transport for London has indicated that it’s thinking about turning black cabs green – the next version of the LEVC taxi could already be going electric in 2027.