Campaign Win! As part of the government's 10-point Environment Plan, the phasing out of petrol and diesel cars is being brought forward to 2030.
This is a fantastic announcement that will protect our environment, reduce air pollution and the health problems it causes. I have been lobbying the Prime Minister and ministers in the Department for Transport on this important issue for some time, it is great to see this commitment to a greener economy.
This will see the end of sale of new Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) cars by 2030, while the sale of hybrid cars will end in 2035. With this, £582 million in grants will be provided for those buying zero or ultra-low emission vehicles to make them cheaper to buy and incentivise more people to make the transition.. In addition to this, the government has announced £1.3 billion to accelerate the rollout of chargepoints for electric vehicles in homes, streets and on motorways across England, so people can more easily and conveniently charge their cars. Nearly £500 million will also be spent in the next four years for the development and mass-scale production of electric vehicle batteries, as part of our commitment to provide up to £1 billion.
This is excellent news for our environment and our economy. As I wrote in my Building Back Greener paper there are profound opportunities and rewards for us with the roll-out of Electric Vehicles (EVs). For example, health conditions caused by air pollution is set to cost the NHS £18.6 billion in 2035 in a 'do nothing' scenario - a move to EVs would cut our greenhouse emissions, improving our air quality which has huge benefits for our health. Currently 36,000 people die per year from air-quality related illnesses, which is unacceptable in a modern, developed nation.
This is also great news for our job market. In my article for Conservative Home, I detailed how investment in EVs and the associated infrastructure could create new green jobs and apprenticeships in areas such as battery technology and charge point installation and maintenance. Upskilling our workforce to support this is so important if we are to make a success of the EV roll-out. This is a vital step towards achieving Net-Zero by 2050 and creating many new jobs in the green economy.
Green investments are crucial, especially now as we continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. As I said to the Prime Minister in May, green investments generated the highest returns in the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. In this new age of recovery, we must prioritise green investments in low-carbon infrastructure such as EVs and renewable energy so we can continue to build back greener.
I know that there is some fear and anxiety around the phasing out of petrol and diesel cars in the near future, but we are not alone. As I stated at the Conservative Environment Network 'Powering up ambition on electric vehicles' panel discussion, China, Israel, the Netherlands, Austria, and Ireland have already committed to the 2030 phase-out of internal combustion engines, with Norway committing to 2025. We must not also forget that the EV 'revolution' is already happening around us - In the first 6 months of 2020, battery-electric vehicle registration was up 160% while petrol and diesel vehicle registration was down 50% and 65% respectively. I have spoken to the National Grid, car manufactures, and electricity distributers and I am confident we can work together to make this initiative an example-setting success.
If the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us anything, it's that we are more than capable of doing a lot in a short amount of time. We built hospitals in weeks, we have already had vaccine breakthroughs, we transformed supply lines to support our COVID response. I believe it is time to fully embrace the opportunities EVs offer and I will be supporting this initiative every step of the way.