What's going on?

The UK government said last week it�s introducing new rules in a bid to make half of all new cars in the UK electric by 2028, but its infrastructure could do with an update first�

What does this mean?

The UK government said two years ago that it�d be banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, and this move should help it get there: it�s introducing China-style rules that�ll force carmakers to make 22% of their output fully electric by 2024, 52% by 2028, and 80% by 2030. But some industry organizations are calling for more relaxed targets � not least because there�s not much talk of actively incentivizing British customers to actually buy EVs. They�re also not convinced there�ll be enough charging stations across the UK to power them � a shortfall that�s long been putting off potential electric converts in the country.

Why should I care?

The bigger picture: Did you forget something else?
The UK government�s latest plan is focused squarely on fully electric cars, but it hasn�t said anything about hybrids. That�s left hybrid specialists like Toyota wondering if they�ll even be able to sell them to British customers after 2030, which might be why the world�s biggest carmaker has threatened to stop investing in its UK-based carmaking plant � one of the biggest in the country.

Zooming out: Join in or lose out.
Government-led EV initiatives � of which there are more and more each year � do seem to be working: data from Bloomberg out on Friday showed there were around 16 million EVs on the world�s roads by the end of last year � up from just 1 million in 2016 (tweet this). And since Bloomberg thinks emerging markets will end up embracing EVs too, it now reckons that this figure could hit 71 million by 2025 � 10 years ahead of previous forecasts.