£1.5k plug-in grant for electric cars scrapped

The government is withdrawing the plug-in grant for cars scheme, which offered discounts on low-emission vehicles, to focus on charge points

The scheme is being stopped immediately and will be replaced with a £300m package of grant funding focusing on expanding the public charge point network as well as electric taxis, vans, trucks, motorcycles and wheelchair accessible vehicles.

To continue the government’s drive towards net zero and ensure effective use of taxpayer funds, £300m in grant funding will now be refocused towards extending plug-in grants to boost sales of plug-in taxis, motorcycles, vans and trucks and wheelchair accessible vehicles, as announced in the Autumn Statement.

All existing applications for the grant will continue to be paid out and where a car has been sold in the two working days before the announcement (14 June), but an application for the grant from dealerships has not yet been made, the sale will also still qualify for the grant.

The average grant paid was £1,500 and the system was introduced in 2011 to encourage sales of electric vehicles, supporting the sale of nearly half a million electric cars through £1.4bn of grants.

Battery and hybrid electric vehicles (EVs) now make up more than half of all new cars sold and fully electric car sales have risen by 70% in the last year, now representing one in six new cars sold.

Transport minister Trudy Harrison said: ‘Government funding must always be invested where it has the highest impact.

‘Having successfully kickstarted the electric car market, we now want to use plug-in grants to match that success across other vehicle types, from taxis to delivery vans and everything in between, to help make the switch to zero emission travel cheaper and easier.’

Since 2020, the government has committed £2.5bn to plug-in vehicle grants, infrastructure and the wider transition to electric vehicles in the UK. The industry is further boosting the switch to greener vehicles by expanding its range of more affordable zero emission cars. A total of 24 models are currently priced under £32,000, compared to just 15 a year ago, and the cost of monthly purchase and rental schemes has fallen significantly.