Citroen's CEO says UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's plans to delay banning the sales of new petrol and diesel cars until 2035 will have no impact on the company's transition to electric vehicles (EVs).

Sunak recently announced his plans to push back the ban from 2030 to 2035, a decision that was greeted with fierce criticism from car manufacturers, environmentalists and MPs, who questioned his commitment to reaching net zero targets.

For car manufacturers, the decision could cause a major headache with production plans, budgets and forecasts for consumer demand already in place to prepare for the transition to EVs. But Citroen CEO Thierry Koskas says the company is pressing on with its electric vision.

"I think that the move is on its way, which means that we are going electric," he said to CGTN Europe. This is a reality. Now, whether (the ban on sales of new petrol or diesel cars) is in 2030 or 2035, we know that the move is on its way. 

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"The challenge for us is to increase year-on-year the share of electric cars within our company and we will not be able to do it if we do not have affordable products that people will buy naturally and this is what we are doing with our new e-C3."

On Tuesday, Citroen unveiled what it says is the first affordable electric car made in Europe. The e-C3 is a five door, five-seater hatchback with a price point of $24,629 - that's roughly half the average price of a typical European EV. Koskas believes price will be the biggest factor in generating consumer demand.

"I don't think it's too much of a question of which year the ban will be in place and people stop buying petrol cars," he added. "For us, it's very much a question that we need now to make progress and the only way to do it is with an affordable vehicle. That's what Citroen is doing today."

Citroen has transformed its production of EVs to reduce costs and the end price for consumers. But Citroen and other car manufacturers alone can't power the transition to EVs. To do that, they will need funding from governments and councils to implement infrastructure and incentives to further entice consumers.

Help is underway. Governments in countries across the EU are offering residential and commercial charging incentives for individuals and businesses to accelerate the electric transition. Koskas says the help is essential to complement the work being done by car manufacturers.

"It's mandatory that every country pushes to get more infrastructure," he said. "The situation is obviously very different from one country to another in Europe. There are some countries, for example, in Scandinavia, where it's already very much rolled out everywhere. 

"Other countries are a bit more behind, but it's very important that every state, every city understands that this is very important to roll out the infrastructure and starts to make plans on that."

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