The government has promised to meet with carmakers to discuss EV targets. It has said the targets “will not be weakened” but it will discuss “flexibilities”.

Manufacturers have said they won’t be able to meet the current targets, which state EV sales must make up 22% of cars sold in 2024, without more customer incentives. That figure is currently at 18.7%, and they think they may hit 19% by the end of the year.

However, that still leaves them open to paying other manufacturers who have built up credits for selling EVs.

While many of those companies are either Chinese or make cars in China – for example, US firm Tesla – other carmakers may also have credits.

Manufacturers have long argued that it doesn’t make sense to subsidise Chinese firms by buying credits.

Earlier this month, both Ford and Stellantis, which owns Vauxhall, announced job cuts, which both partly pinned on the EV targets.

But both firms have previously raised doubts about their future in the UK because of other factors.

Ford closed its Bridgend factory in 2020, getting rid of 1,644 jobs, citing Covid as one of the reasons. Vauxhall’s former owner PSA Group suggested in 2019 that Brexit threatened its Luton factory.

In general UK-based companies have been embracing the move to electric, with JLR’s Jaguar attracting a lot of attention over its recent rebrand as an electric-only carmaker.