London's new minicabs would have to be electric from 2028 under TfL's plan

More than 70% of London's private hire vehicles already meet TfL's zero emission capable standard, which allows plug-in hybrids as well as battery electric cars. The next step being consulted on removes the hybrid option entirely. Under proposals published by Transport for London on 22 October, any private hire vehicle (PHV) new to licensing in the capital would have to be fully electric from 3 July 2028. Wheelchair accessible vehicles would get until 1 July 2030.

The consultation is open until 23:59 on Wednesday 2 December 2026. It is a licensing change rather than a ban on existing cars: a vehicle already licensed keeps its licence, while the rules bite when a car enters the trade, and there are related changes to how long a lapsed vehicle can be re-licensed before it counts as new.

What the rule would change

TfL's current requirement, introduced in 2020 for vehicles under 18 months old and extended to all PHVs new to licensing in 2023, is that a car must be zero emission capable. That standard is met by battery electric cars and by plug-in hybrids, which have an engine as well as a battery. The press release setting out the consultation is direct about the gap: zero emission capable cars that are not fully electric still produce emissions from the exhaust when they run on petrol.

The proposal therefore tightens the definition from capable to fully electric, with a two year lead time for wheelchair accessible vehicles so that manufacturers know what to build. TfL's own framing is that a confirmed timeline gives the trade something to plan against, and gives the wheelchair accessible market a specification to design for.

The emissions case, in TfL's numbers

TfL forecasts that the change would cut nitrogen oxide emissions from private hire vehicles by 9% and CO2 from the same source by 35% over the first ten years, measured against the existing licensing requirements. Over eighteen years, the release gives a 97% reduction. Those figures come from TfL's modelling rather than from an independent assessment, and the long dated number depends on the fleet turning over completely, which is why the ten year figures are the more useful guide.

The argument for targeting this fleet is straightforward. Private hire cars cover high mileages in dense parts of the city, so a mile driven by a minicab displaces more pollution exposure than a mile driven by a private car in the same street. London's taxi and private hire action plan, published in 2025, committed the organisation to a zero emission requirement for the future, and the consultation is the point where that commitment becomes a date.

Most of the work has already been done

The 70% zero emission capable figure is the strongest argument in TfL's favour. It means the trade has already bought the cars, installed the charging habits and absorbed the extra cost, without a legal requirement to be fully electric.

That matters for how the proposal lands. The remaining gap is smaller than it was when the 2020 rule came in, and it is concentrated in the plug-in hybrid drivers who chose a car that met the letter of the standard. For those drivers, the 2028 date sets the end of the road for a petrol engine in a licensed car, and the decision is whether to run the current vehicle to the end of its licensing life or change earlier.

The operators who are already fully electric have a commercial interest in the change, since it stops hybrid cars competing for the same work without paying the same price for fuel. Drivers who bought a plug-in hybrid in good faith have a different interest, and the consultation's own questions invite them to say so.

The other changes bundled in

The consultation also proposes a set of licensing changes from 1 March 2027, which are less discussed and would matter to anyone running an older vehicle:

TfL would stop approving new alternative fuel conversion systems, such as liquefied petroleum gas and compressed natural gas, along with new exhaust abatement systems.
The window for re-licensing an expired taxi or private hire vehicle would fall from 24 months to 12, after which the vehicle counts as new to licensing and has to meet the new standards.
No private hire vehicle could stay licensed beyond its tenth birthday.

Read together, those three changes remove the routes by which an older, converted or long dormant vehicle re-enters the licensed fleet. The re-licensing change matters most for anyone holding a dormant licence, since it shortens the period before a returning vehicle has to meet the current standard.

What is not in the proposal

There is no requirement for existing licensed hybrid cars to be replaced by a particular date, and no scrappage or conversion support attached to the proposal. TfL says it continues to consider a zero emission requirement for taxis, meaning the black cab fleet, but this consultation does not set one.

The other open question is charging. A minicab does not sit on a driveway overnight, and the drivers who will have to change cars are the ones most dependent on the public network. We have covered the spread of on-street charging through councils, and the cost gap between home and public charging remains the practical obstacle for this group rather than the cars themselves, as our charging price breakdown sets out.

How to respond

Responses go through the TfL consultation page before 23:59 on 2 December 2026. Anyone can respond, and the questions cover the 2028 and 2030 dates, the conversion and abatement proposals, re-licensing and the ten year age limit. TfL has not published a date for the decision that follows.