Iceland chairman Richard Walker has called upon the government to take urgent action to improve the UK’s electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure, after the supermarket missed internal targets to transition its fleet to EVs.

Talking via social media platform LinkedIn, Walker admitted the frozen food specialists’ adoption of electric vehicles “isn’t happening fast enough”.

Walker said: “Iceland have a home delivery fleet of over 1,700 vans, and I get asked loads about our adoption of Electric Vehicles.

“Unfortunately, it isn’t happening fast enough – for us, or indeed across the UK generally. That’s not good for the environment and not good for the country, as we’ll risk costly penalties if targets aren’t met.”

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Walker added the government needs to implement changes, including simplifying legislation, enabling faster rollout of charging infrastructure and introducing further purchasing incentives.

The chairman’s comments come amid a government consultation over the potential to bring forward a ban on the sale of new diesel and petrol cars to 2030, as well as to introduce stricter targets for manufacturers on the sale of zero emission vehicles.

The government has previously pushed back to the EU’s deadline of 2035, in a bid to avoid “more costs on working people”.

Most major UK supermarkets have launched electric vehicle fleets in recent years, in an aim to achieve net zero status. They include the UK’s largest retailer Tesco, which in 2022 became the first in the UK to launch a zero-emission electric lorry. Each model offset 30,000 diesel-fuelled road miles with green energy and removed 23 tonnes of CO2e each year.