As EV sales, oil costs and wildfires spike, UK gov’t considers.. fewer EVs? (update)

The UK is weighing whether to loosen its electric vehicle sales rules, even though EV sales are already beating the government's own targets. Current policy calls for 80% EV sales by 2030 and a full ban on new gas and diesel car sales by 2035. Britain's new government has opened a formal review that could water down the 2030 goal to somewhere between 50% and 70%, and is also reportedly considering more oil drilling in the North Sea.

The timing is notable given what else is happening in the UK right now: record heat waves, drought across much of England, wildfires that recently destroyed homes in the West Midlands, and some of the highest gas prices in the world following an ongoing war affecting oil supplies. Since March, UK households have been buying more solar panels, home EV chargers and heat pumps to cut their reliance on costly imported fuel. EV sales have also kept climbing, with battery-electric vehicles up over 44% year over year in July, and EVs are now often cheaper upfront than gas cars in the UK, thanks to competition from Chinese automakers.

None of this changes anything for US homeowners directly, since it's a UK policy debate. But it's a reminder that home electrification, solar, heat pumps and EV charging, has been a real hedge against fuel price spikes elsewhere, and that government targets for clean technology can shift depending on political pressure, even when the technology itself is already succeeding on its own.