MPs not doing enough to help UK carmakers through Trump’s trade war amid weak demand for EVs

By EMILY HAWKINS

Updated: 22:00 BST, 7 April 2025

Car firms have blasted Labour for not doing enough to help them navigate Donald Trump’s trade war amid weak demand for electric vehicles.

Vertu Motors, one of the country’s biggest dealership chains, accused Sir Keir Starmer of merely ‘tinkering’. And Ford warned that more is needed to tackle the ‘challenging’ conditions.

The Prime Minister yesterday confirmed that the Government would water down rules designed to force carmakers to switch from petrol and diesel to battery-powered vehicles.

It means lower fines for manufacturers that fail to comply with electric vehicle (EV) sales targets. Luxury carmakers such as Aston Martin, Bentley and McLaren will be exempt.

A 2030 phase-out date for new petrol and diesel cars will not change. But full hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles may continue to be sold until 2035.

Industry trade body, The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), said ‘greater action will almost certainly be needed to safeguard our industry’s competitiveness’.

Plea: Dealership chain Vertu, accused Sir Keir Starmer of merely ‘tinkering’ while Ford warned that more is needed to tackle the ‘challenging’ conditions

Robert Forrester, chief executive of Vertu Motors, said Starmer’s tweaks simply amounted to ‘lots of words’. Firms still face a £12,000 penalty for every gas-guzzling car sold above the green targets.

Forrester added: ‘That’s billions of pounds to manufacturers, and manufacturers face a choice of either paying significant fines or rationing petrol and diesel cars. Nothing has really changed here. 

‘This is real tinkering. There are lots and lots of words in the announcement, but it doesn’t really address the major issues.’

Lisa Brankin, the boss of Ford in Britain and Ireland, said the measures were ‘a small step in the right direction, but it is not the giant leap required to address the especially challenging electric vehicle market conditions’.

At least 28 per cent of new cars sold by each manufacturer this year must be zero-emission. But a poll by the SMMT showed fewer than one in eight buyers want an EV.

Starmer told workers at a Jaguar Land Rover factory in the West Midlands: ‘We are going to back you to the hilt.’

But Tory business spokesman Andrew Griffith said the Government was ‘firing on half cylinders when nothing less than full throttle to support our carmakers is required’.

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MPs not doing enough to help UK carmakers through Trump’s trade war amid weak demand for EVs

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