The sale of new petrol and diesel cars will be banned within a decade, Boris Johnson is expected to announce next week as part of a broader package of green initiatives.
In February, Mr Johnson announced that the existing ban on selling new petrol or diesel cars would be brought forward from 2040 to 2035.
Now the prime minister is expected to move the date forward to 2030 in an attempt to jump-start the market for electric cars in the UK and push Britain towards its climate goal, according to industry and Whitehall figures.
However, the government is expected to keep the less stringent date of 2035 for the phase-out of the sale of hybrid cars that plug in to charge.
While electric car sales are rising strongly, they are still below 7 per cent of all new vehicles bought across the UK last month, according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and…