Jonathan Murray, Acting Managing Director, Zemo Partnership, reflects on the lastest transport decarbonisation progress
It’s been a mixed start to 2026 for the road transport decarbonisation agenda; but certainly nowhere near as miserable as the weather!
There was some inconsistency in reporting of the 2025 out-turn under the ZEV mandate. However, the indications suggest that the EV sales targets for the year were met once flexibilities, based on past credits from previous years and sales of PHEVs, are taken into account. The Government has said that there will be an interim review of the mandate in early 2027 when an assessment will be made of any changes needed after some flexibilities expire at the end of this year.
While January 2026 new EV sales figures were underwhelming, with a tiny rise on January 2025, there was better news on sales of used electric cars which rose by 46% last year (vs 2024).
The passenger car sector is clearly a rapidly maturing market for EVs. Favourable Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) rates and a maturing product range have led many company car fleets to switch to BEVs. Whole-life cost calculations increasingly stack up, particularly when fuel savings and lower maintenance are taken into account.
We may well come to look back on 2025 as the year when the electrification of the UK’s truck sector really got under way. Supported by the Zero Emission & HGV Infrastructure Demonstrator (ZEHID) programme and other government initiatives, electric truck uptake doubled last year (albeit from a low base) with the 1,000th zero emission truck registered during the year. Up-front costs remain a big barrier to uptake of eHGVs, but there was encouraging news in early January 2026 as the Government announced an extra £18m for the Plug-in Truck Grant, enabling subsidies of up £120,000 towards the purchase costs of the largest lorries.
There was also encouraging news from the public transport sector as UK registrations of buses, coaches and minibuses grew by 10.4% in 2025 to 9,259 units. A 62% growth in sales of ZEVs in this sector compared with 2024 meant that over 27% of all new public transport vehicles coming on to the road produced zero emissions. There was particularly strong progress in Scotland where sales were up over 160% to 1,188 units, supported by the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund (ScotZEB).
The growth in sales in 2025 means that the UK is still Europe’s largest zero emission bus market.
Progress on buses, however, masks relatively little progress on coaches. At least the coach sector was explicitly recognised in the Government’s new Heavy Goods Vehicle CO₂ Emissions Regulatory Framework, published for consultation in early January. This explicitly considers whether coaches should be brought into scope as part of the broader decarbonisation pathway, which should help to lay the foundations for future progress.
Zemo has a particular focus on decarbonising freight transport in Wales in the coming months, with an event in Cardiff (26th March). Members are also invited to working group meetings on personal mobility (14th April) and energy infrastructure (24th April).
For more information: www.zemo.org.uk
