Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of how many (a) ultra low emission, (b) hydrogen and (c) fully electric vehicles there will be on roads in each of the next five years; and whether his Department is on course to meet targets related to such vehicle numbers.

The Government wants almost every car and van in the UK to be a zero emission vehicle by 2050. In 2013 the Government’s strategy for ultra low emission vehicles (ULEVs) set out an expectation that ULEVs – which include hydrogen fuel cell, plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles – could make up 3-7% of new car sales in 2020. Currently, there are over 85,000 electric vehicles that have benefited from the plug-in grant funding schemes. Uptake in this new market is difficult to predict, and depends largely on the speed with which car manufacturers make new models available. Latest data indicates that ULEV car uptake remains on track for the growth projections set out in 2013.