Lister Puts Future Plans On Hold, Asks For UK ICE Ban Clarity

Lister is a name that’s been floating around the more fringe parts of the British car industry for over 70 years. Beginning in the 1950s as a builder of racing cars, most famously with Jaguar power, it subsequently went quiet for a while before returning in the ’90s with the V12-powered Storm, a car that made a name for itself in the era’s GT racing scene.

A further quiet period ensued into the new century, before in the 2010s, the company was revived again and began building continuation versions of its original ’50s racers as well as tuned versions of the Jaguar F-Type and F-Pace.

Now, though, the company could be set to once again go quiet for a while, as it’s announced it’s putting all its current plans on hold due to uncertainty around the British government’s plans to end the sale of combustion-powered cars.

The Cambridge-based outfit’s CEO Lawrence Whittaker has released a statement saying that, while Lister is “in a very strong position financially,” it’s pausing all its plans due to uncertainty over whether exemptions from emissions standards for low-volume manufacturers will continue.

Whittaker mentions the government’s plans to end the sale of new internal combustion cars as the reason for the decision, stating that the plan “dictates that all new cars must produce zero emissions by 2035 – a date that our current government has said they will bring forward to 2030.

“That means that in just five short years all cars sold in the UK are likely to be electric,” continues Whittaker, although currently, it looks like hybrids of some form will be allowed to remain on sale beyond 2030.

Nevertheless, Whittaker points out that previously, manufacturers producing fewer than 1000 cars per year have been exempt from the strict emissions regulations that mass manufacturers are held to, but that the government hasn’t yet offered any clarity on whether this exemption will continue.

The plans put on hold by Lister include an all-new UK-built car that would have been the company’s first completely new, ground-up model since the Storm debuted in 1993. A “multi-million pound investment” that would “create many new jobs… throughout the UK,” its production is now a little up in the air. Whittaker ends his statement by requesting that the government provide “an urgent update to the legislation, so we know how to plan for the next five years.”