A ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars should be brought forward by eight years to 2032, MPs have said.

The government’s current plans to ensure all new cars are “effectively zero emission” by 2040 were “vague and unambitious”, a report by Parliament’s business select committee said.

It also criticised cuts to subsidies and the lack of charging points.

The government said it aimed to make the UK “the best place in the world” to own an electric vehicle.

However, the report from the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy committee said the government’s deeds did not match the ambitions of its words.

The committee’s chairwoman, Rachel Reeves MP, said the government’s targets gave “little clarity or incentive to industry or the consumer to invest in electric cars.”

‘Zero means zero’

Earlier this year the prime minister said that all new cars and vans should be “effectively zero emission” by 2040.

The government’s Road to Zero Strategy said it wanted “almost every car and van” in the UK to be zero emission by 2050. However it was unclear which, if any, hybrid models were being included.

The committee said “zero should mean zero” and called for the government to bring forward “a clear, precise target for new sales of cars and vans to be truly zero emission by 2032”.

The UK was among the top 10 countries for electric vehicle sales in 2017, and has around 14,500 public charging points. However, in its report the committee said the country was far from electric vehicle ready.

Read more: BBC

The European Parliament has approved a draft law to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide from new cars by 20 per cent by 2025 and 40 per cent by 2030.

The proposal, a hard-won compromise between environmentalists and auto industry advocates, would reduce emissions from petrol and diesel cars and an increased focus on electric cars. MEPs set target of 30 per cent of new car and van sales to be electric by 2030.

One amendment passed by the parliament concerned a bonus system, whereby companies would be allowed a lower CO2 reduction target if they produced a certain proportion of electric cars.

However, if manufacturers fail to produce enough electric vehicles to meet the proposal’s benchmark, they would be obliged to reduce emissions beyond the 40 per cent target in order to compensate.

Carbon emissions from cars and vans have been a contentious subject of discussion in Europe since 2015, when Volkswagen was found to have rigged diesel engines to pass emissions tests. Many diesels were subsequently discovered to be more pollutant than had been believed. Some cities recommended banning older diesels altogether; while the Danish government recently proposed a full ban on new petrol and diesel cars by 2030.

Read more: Government Europa

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Denmark has proposed a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 and hybrid from 2035, joining international efforts to promote electric-only vehicles to reduce air pollution and combat climate change.

The government has previously come under fire for increasing tax on electric cars in 2016, sending sales down from more than 3 percent of all new cars to almost zero, but now aims to follow the example being set in an increasing number of countries.

“It is a big ambition that will be hard to achieve. But that’s exactly why we need to try,”

Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told parliament on Tuesday.

The plan requires parliamentary approval to become law and will be presented to parliament next week.

Britain and France have both pledged to ban new petrol and diesel cars from 2040 in move that could hit the wealth of oil producers and transform a car industry in which global carmakers are scrambling to adapt to the brave new world of electric vehicles.

Read more: Reuters