Major carmakers including BMW, Ford, Nissan and Toyota, along with parts supplier Bosch, privately lobbied the UK government to revoke the planned 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel car sales, according to documents obtained via a freedom of information request. This is significant because the ban is a cornerstone of the UK's decarbonisation strategy, with the switch to electric vehicles identified by the government's Climate Change Committee as the single biggest contributor to cutting carbon emissions over the next decade.

The companies sent a joint letter to ministers in April calling for an "open technology approach" that would permit efficient combustion engines, hybrids and plug-in hybrids beyond 2035, provided they used green steel and sustainable fuels, and requested a meeting with ministers for Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. A government spokesperson said the ban was not up for negotiation, though Labour has already introduced flexibilities to EV targets running to 2030 and is weighing further changes to the zero emission vehicle mandate. The move drew criticism from campaigners and Polestar UK's managing director Matt Galvin, who called reversing the transition a "historic policy failure", while critics also note the carmakers' proposed "e-fuels" solution is considered unviable at scale due to energy wastage.