The UK government has confirmed it will reintroduce grants for new electric cars, offering discounts of up to £3750.
The new Electric Car Grant, backed by £650 million of government funding, will apply to certain new EVs that are priced at or below £37,000.
A Department for Transport (DfT) spokesperson told Autocar that the discounts could be applied to new EVs as of Wednesday (16 July).
It comes three years after the previous, Conservative-led government axed the Plug-in Car Grant (PiCG), which offered a fixed £1500 off list prices on EVs priced below £32,000.
Since then, demand for new EVs has fallen short of the rise that was forecast at the time – and much of the car industry has recently called for support to stimulate the market, particularly for private buyers.
Compared with the PiCG's fixed £1500 discount, the value of the new Electric Car Grant offered on each model will depend on sustainability criteria, which the government has yet to disclose. Cars deemed to be in “band one” will be discounted by the full £3750 while those in “band two” will receive up to £1500.
The spokesperson said bands (which could expand beyond two) are determined by how much CO2 is emitted in an EV's production, assessing the energy used in vehicle assembly as well as battery manufacturing. Threshold levels have yet to be made public.
They added that contrary to some reports, UK-made vehicles – such as the Citroën ë-Berlingo and from later this year the next-generation Nissan Leaf (pictured below) – would not be given additional benefits. "All products are assessed under the same framework," they said.
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This is targeted at the same group of people that were given public money to buy diesel cars under the UK scrappage scheme.
I wish it would honestly recorded; "backed by £650 million of government funding" as the truth 'government spending £650M of tax payers money' (and as opposed to on what, fixing the roads, hospitals or schools?Also as EV numbers increase and ICE declines where are they going to get the loss of ICE related fuel duty and taxation from..? Will transportation 'electricity' star to be taxed as 'fuel' is, some form of duty and of course the VAT? Assuming the governments have thought about this what are they not telling us?
And as for out-and-about refuelling, i.e. that not at home the the £1000 or so wall boxes, for those that can facillitate them, charges of 35p-80p/kwh are a real big turn off / exploitation:A few basics, given a M/kwh of ~3.5, that equates to 10 to 23ppm compared to and ICE of 45mpg, and £1.40/L of 14ppm, and of course much more available and expedient refuelling.If your pottering about in a city / town and can charge 'at home' then you can see the benifit of an EV and to reduced CO2 etc BUT if in a town or city then there is public transport, which of course would greatly reduce overall all the other pollutions; tyres, brakes, 'recycling, and of course greatly reduce congestion, which would of course greatly improve road safety..?Whereas for anyone using EV away from home / where public transportation isn't really practical they seem cost and convenience ineffective/impractical, well thats my conclusion. Use case, visiting far flung friends, UK holidays, and without charging facilities at destination, let alone mid route stopovers etc.And for venturing abroad in an EV !
Whereas my aledgedly evil although euro 6 complient diesel, gives me 600 mile range, no refuling constraints inconvenience, a reliable ppm, and general independance.Perhaps the EV furore is about limiting unwealthy peoples mobility, raising private transportation costs/taxation/proffits for companies etc. rather than real transportation consumer value.
If we get hot and bothered about real global pollution, rather than penalising UK consumers and the UK's ~1% contribution of CO2, to really improve global pollution the way better improvements would be achieved by tackling the worlds top 10 polluters, USA, China, Russia, India etc, or another way, rather than the 80:20 rule try the 99:1 rule?
From a quick AI query UK cars only produce about 15% of the UK's CO2 emissions, what is the government doing about the majority, the 85% ..? Are we tackling a little acorn rather than the whole Tree (and at what real cost to UK consumers)! No point in crucifying ourselves for a globally insignificant consideration?
Here a good though - why aren't global / international tarrifs in place on top polluters, i.e. used for something good?
The ramblings of a madman...
What aload of dross. Your diesel gets 'reliable' ppm, you make that sound like a good thing. Try running your diesel in a closed garage and see what that 'reliable' ppm does to your lungs.
And on the day a pluged in BEV will be getting 50% of it's fuel from the wind and sun.
Right now most manufacturers are pre registering EVs in huge numbers just to get them 'registered' and counting towards the ZEV mandate. I assume all this will do is allow them to do that slightly less if a few private buyers decide they want brand new EV rather than a pre reg. It wont make the EVs and cheaper, just save the huge loss car makers are taking having to sell their cars as 'second hand' at second hand prices.