The UK Government’s ZEV mandate is on course to hurt rather than help fleets, it has been said.

Speaking at the Association of Fleet Professionals (AFP) annual conference, the organisation’s deputy chair Matthew Hammond said the policy was of no benefit to the sector.

The ZEV mandate, which requires manufacturers to sell a rising proportion of zero-emission vehicles each year or face fines, was revised earlier this year with increased flexibilities – however, the headline targets remained in place.

Hammond, also head of fleet for Altrad UK and a former Business Car Fleet Manager of the Year, said: “I think we’re got to be realistic and say the ZEV mandate does absolutely nothing for fleets. It doesn’t benefit fleets in any way, shape or form. It hinders fleets.

“We’ve got to face facts that at the moment, the drive to decarbonise fleets is our biggest generational challenge, but the government are just tinkering around and causing inconvenience to the industry, if I’m honest with you.”

Hammond said that while each fleet represented at the conference would acknowledge that they needed to decarbonise, each fleet would face its own individual challenges.

He said: “Some fleets in here are well on the way. Some, like my own, we’re not, because of the nature of our fleet. We shouldn’t be penalised because we operate in a different way to [delivery fleets].

“Personally, I think that the whole premise around the ZEV mandate is wrong. I think it’s flawed, I think it’s a money grab against the OEMs and the OEMs are going to kick back.

“These guys won’t just roll over and have their bellies tickled. They’ll kick back on it, and we’ll be the ones that suffer. 

“So, the impact on fleets, I think it’s a bad move. I think it’s going to hurt the industry rather than help the industry.”

Also speaking at the conference, Harvey Perkins, co-founder of consultancy firm HRUX, blamed the ZEV mandate for a recent slowdown in the UK new car market.

He explained: “If you back to 2018, 2019 before Covid, the UK bought 2.5 million cars a year. Last year it was two million, the year before it was two million. We had a decline of 10% in April [2025] – you can’t go on one month in isolation, but the trend is there.

“I think it’s the ZEV mandate – I don’t think it’s any more complicated than that. Of course there are lots of factors, but I think it’s the ZEV mandate.

“In order to achieve 28% EV sales, [OEMs] can’t force more people to take EVs, but they can prevent people from taking petrol or diesel. Effectively what’s happening is you’re rationing the market, and that’s reducing the entire size of the market, and that’s terrible news for the automative sector in the UK and it will have implications, like for instance, Vauxhall closing its plant in Luton, and we will see more and more of that as we go.”