Speeches by Mather.

“Thank you, and welcome to the Committee. That is an incredibly important point. On what the ECG facilitates, and how that allows lower and middle-income households to take part in the EV transition, around 100,000 vehicles have been sold through the ECG. You can have up to £3,750 off the cost of a new electric vehicle.…”

“Might it be worth pointing to the consultation?”

“I don’t think so, because the Government made changes to ensure that the ZEV mandate does what it is supposed to, which is allowing us to meet our climate obligations while also making a good business case for the automotive sector. What has not changed is the timelines. That is the key difference between the previous …”

“No.”

“Oh no, I certainly don’t want to give the impression that everything is fine, and we are just going to leave it to evolve as it wishes to. The Government are actively working in partnership with the charge point sector, for instance, to drive the transition, because that is necessary. We are trying to convince the publ…”

“The challenge is that EVs are heavier vehicles across the board, by the nature of their design.”

“You do well to correct me, Chair—thank you.”

“Yes. That is not to say that there are no challenges in meeting it. Debate is ongoing within the automotive sector. I was at SMMT Electrified a few weeks ago and got some robust questions on this exact point. I do not think people in the automotive sector doubt the principle of the 2030 phase-out date—in fact, it serve…”

“Thank you very much for that question. The short answer— I will go into in more detail—is that we are confident that it is moving at the pace required. That does not mean that there is not an enormous amount of work to do. I am certainly under no illusion, as Minister, about the scale of the challenge. In 2025, the UK …”

“Good morning, Chair and Committee members. I am Keir Mather, the Minister for Aviation, Maritime and Decarbonisation at the Department for Transport.”

“I’m not sure about your constituents, Baggy, but I think mine would argue that there is never a right time to introduce a new tax. Nevertheless, it is unfortunately necessary because the Government are determined to make the EV transition a reality. We want to get to a place where EVs are the dominant form of car trans…”

“We have not sprung this on people, to the extent that the eVED proposal does not come into effect for two years. If you already own an EV, you will still, under the eVED proposals, be paying less than you would otherwise have paid in fuel duty. If you combine that with accessing home charging, you unlock the benefit. B…”

“I will let you answer that, Richard.”

“The OBR said that it expects 320,000 of the 440,000 EV sales impacted by the introduction of eVED to be offset by the measures announced in the Budget in 2025. If you combine that with the suite of measures we are bringing forward to incentivise EV uptake, suddenly that picture looks quite different from some of the ca…”

“It is a totally fair question. Facilitating the transition is not just about one piece of the puzzle; you need to get the charging infrastructure right, and you also need the incentives on the overall price point of the electric vehicle. There is a much broader conversation, which I will not pre-empt because I presume …”

“A series of demonstrator events are being planned in high footfall areas in partnership with the retailers themselves, but you will be unsurprised to hear that with the ambitious ZEV mandate, automotive manufacturers and dealerships are doing everything they can to push forward progressively in this space. When I visit…”

“Absolutely. I will start, and then feel free to build on this, Richard. The LEVI scheme is designed to facilitate really close working between local authorities, the Department for Transport and OZEV. It does that in a number of key ways. It gives local authorities the agency to pursue technological solutions that work…”

“I might turn to Richard to talk about intergovernmental working. On regional disparity, the sector is pre-empting quite a few of these challenges. I recently visited a Ford dealership and had an extensive discussion about retraining and skills, and how this is an attractive proposition not only for young people who wan…”

“Yes.”

“I would not say that the difference would be so material that users are going to find challenges in application across boundary lines. I would say that you need the design schemes that reflect the actual make-up of the places where you are seeking to install this infrastructure. To use the same example, when I was in I…”