That can only happen if the amendment has a “a significant impact specific to everyday life of communities in Northern Ireland in a way that is liable to persist.”

If the brake is pulled, the Government can prevent the law from applying in Northern Ireland following lengthy discussions with the EU. 

However, the Stormont Brake can only be used if the Northern Ireland Assembly is up and running.

As things stand, the DUP has refused to drop its boycott of Stormont over the Protocol and return to power-sharing because they are not satisfied with Mr Sunak’s new Brexit deal.

Lord Dodds said: “Even if Stormont was up and running, the difficulty of the Stormont brake is it is such a convoluted process and such a high bar to reach in the first place that it’s difficult to see how it could operate in practice. » 

Industry sources cast doubt on whether e-fuels would ever be a scalable rival to electric cars, with their use likely to be reserved to expensive supercars or jet planes. 

The Electric Vehicle Association of Northern Ireland said: “We would call on the UK government not to water down current plans and instead to accelerate the charging Infrastructure rollout across the UK. »

The British car manufacturing industry must ensure its cars meet EU standards if they want to export to the bloc, one of its major export destinations. In 2022, almost 79pc of all cars manufactured in Britain were exported.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: “E-fuels are not proven technology, have expensive and complex supply chains, and emit much of the same pollutants as petrol and diesel. They might have a role for specialist vehicles, but we are not looking at them as a solution for normal cars and vans.

“We remain committed to helping people switch to electric vehicles, having invested £2bn so far, ending the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, and for all new cars and vans to be zero emission by 2035.”