Toyota warns UK plants will struggle if government bans hybrid cars

The government has proposed banning cars that cannot drive at least 50 miles on electric power by 2040. Its plans, which would rule out some hybrid cars and all petrol or diesel vehicles, are part of an effort to reduce emissions and improve air quality.

Tony Walker, Toyota’s UK managing director, told MPs on the business committee the carmaker’s UK factories would have difficulty securing funding from the company if the plans, due to published in the next few weeks, go down this route.

By covering almost all Toyota’s range, including its Prius hybrid, the plans “would make the vehicles we make in the UK currently unsaleable in the UK”, Walker said, according to the Financial Times.

Japanese carmakers, which set up factories in the UK in the 1980s as a gateway into Europe, are already weighing the effects of Brexit on their business decisions. Toyota employs about 3,000 people at its car plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire, and engine facility in Deeside, North Wales.

Walker said: "For the long term future investment decision, free and frictionless trade [with Europe] and being able to sell what we make in this country will be critical."