UK motorists plan to keep their petrol and diesel cars for next nine years on average – research

It’s been revealed that UK motorists plan to keep their petrol and diesel cars for the next nine years on average.

That’s according to sustainable fuel company Sustain, who questioned a total of 1,300 UK petrol and diesel drivers over vehicle ownership.

This is being credited to the government’s ZEV Mandate, which is a regulation for car manufacturers to sell a minimum percentage of zero-emission vehicles, with the target increasing every year.

Sustain’s research found a further 27 per cent of motorists were likely to switch from petrol and diesel to electric in the next five years, while five per cent want to keep their combustion-powered vehicles for two decades. But, 50 per said that they would like a way to make their car more environmentally friendly.

David Richardson, director of Sustain, said: “Working from that data, if we take it that 27 per cent of the current fleet of ICE cars leave our roads in the next five years, that will still leave 23.7 million driving around in 2030. So, even if the ZEV Mandate goes to plan, around 80 per cent of new cars sold at that point are electric, there will still be 23 million cars on the UK’s roads running on fossil fuels. That is why it is vital that policymakers do something to tackle the existing fleet – not just focus solely on new cars. Solutions such as sustainable fuel need to be given more support.”

Sustainable fuel is made from agricultural waste, such as straw, by-products or waste from crops. These fuels use carbon already in the atmosphere, which is recycled by plants as they grow, instead of releasing CO2 from fossil fuels.