What we’re witnessing right now is the biggest transformation in the motor trade since I joined as a trainee salesman in 1984. Probably as seismic as the shift from horse and cart to the internal combustion engine (Ice) in the early 1900s.

Our forecourts are increasingly lined with the latest electric vehicles, with incredible offers, and my staff are being drilled by the biggest auto manufacturers on how to lure customers to the green side – they’re even sending specialist trainers in.

But there’s one problem – where are the people who want to buy them? Electric vehicles (EVs) will be the future one day, but right now we can still only sell around one electric vehicle for every four petrol, diesel or hybrid cars. Customers don’t have the appetite yet.

Indeed, the industry is now warning that the Government’s 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel cars looks impossible to meet as things stand, with manufacturers calling for an urgent review of the UK’s Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) mandate.

Public acceptance is still a long way off, and the infrastructure isn’t ready yet. Charging stations are such a rip-off there’s hardly any difference in price compared to petrol at the pump – plus it takes longer. The only real way to benefit is to trickle-charge it at home overnight.

So why are we so keen to sell them? Well, we pretty much have to. Under the ludicrous ZEV mandate, the Government is forcing car manufacturers to register an increasing percentage of their cars as zero emission – no matter whether there is natural demand or not.

This year it’s 33 per cent – nearly one in three cars. The target then rises every year until the 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel cars comes into force. With the EU also enforcing its own deadline – one which is expected to see the bloc mandate that 90 per cent of all new cars sold from 2035 are zero-emission vehicles – all manufacturers across the continent are affected, including Renault, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and more.

While it might be a noble aim, this supply-side push is wreaking havoc on our motor industry – leaving manufacturers in financial jeopardy and dealerships pushing cars on people who don’t want them yet.

To hit their targets, the big European firms are writing off billions of pounds by heavily discounting EVs just to get them sold. We’re seeing lease deals that simply don’t reflect the cost of the car. It’s not sustainable.

At the same time, these manufacturers are facing fierce competition from China, where automakers have far lower labour and production costs, and can sell comparable models significantly cheaper. Beijing already has a 10 per cent market share in Britain, when 18 months ago it had barely scratched the surface.

European firms are having to cope with this while incurring huge losses because they’re being forced to sell EVs. It’s absolute madness, and if it continues, some of them may even cease to exist.

And that pressure works its way all the way down to the dealership floor. If we don’t sell our quota of EVs, the manufacturers won’t release our bonuses. Missing these would cost each one of my dealerships around £500,000 a year.

Margins are tight. We might have a £1bn turnover at my own firm, Swansway Motor Group, but we only get about a 1.1 per cent return on sales. The profitability of car dealerships has already taken a downward turn as a result.

It has a knock-on effect for consumers too. One of the greatest fears when buying a car is residual value, and the huge discounts are leaving people at the end of their PCP finance deals in negative equity.

A lot of early adopters have had their fingers burned – the worst I can recall was a customer £12,000 worse off at the end of their term for a high-end EV. People aren’t stupid. They’re asking why they should pay more for an electric car when it’s losing value faster than an Ice alternative?

The crazy thing is, the best value electric car right now is a used one. Given the depreciation and the rising fuel prices, they’re actually good value for money – and we know once people buy an EV they rarely go back. But second-hand vehicles don’t count under the ZEV mandate.

At the moment, manufacturers are still hitting their EV targets, but much of that is being driven through fleet sales, leasing firms and government-backed schemes. It’s not from ordinary retail buyers walking into showrooms and purchasing these cars. In fact, if there wasn’t government pressure, the amount of electric vehicles sold in the UK would be minimal.

I’m not anti-EV – far from it. Electrification will come, there is no doubt about it, but other parts of the world are not moving at the same speed.

Donald Trump’s tariffs have killed the US EV market stone dead, China’s EV plants are all being powered by coal, and then you’ve got Africa and India who aren’t remotely interested in climate change. So why should little old Europe have to do it on its own?

You cannot force a market to move faster than it is ready to. That is why the 2035 deadline looks increasingly unrealistic from where I stand. The timetable has to move – I think 2040 or 2045, and this will have to include some hybrids.

In my business, there’s one rule that has never changed – the customer is always right. Perhaps it’s time for the Government to finally listen to them too.

As told to Jim Norton