A leading campaign group has warned that a no-deal Brexit could harm the growth of the electric vehicle market in the United Kingdom.

Transport & Environment (T&E) has said that cars sold in the UK will no longer count towards their EU CO2 targets meaning that manufacturers will shift their priorities to mainland Europe for EV vehicles.

While a raft of new EU regulations are due to start on January 1st 2020, there are no new UK rules released currently, despite the UK government proposing a new CO2 scheme in 2018.

T&E research has shown that there will be 214 electric models on the European market in 2021, up from the 60 available at the end of last year.

“Thanks to new EU rules, a wave of new, longer range, and more affordable electric cars will be on sale across Europe,” said Greg Archer, UK director at T&E.

“If the UK leaves the EU with no deal it will no longer be part of these rules and the cars sold in the UK won’t count towards meeting the carmakers’ targets. As a result, electric cars simply won’t be made available in large numbers in the UK, slowing progress in the shift to zero-emissions cars here.”

Despite BMW and Land Rover announcing EV manufacturing schemes in the UK in the next 12 months, the fact that there are no lithium-ion battery plants confirmed for British soil in the next five years could be a major problem. There are 16 planned for mainland Europe.

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