Published 14 Jun, 2022
Plug-in car grant axed
The government has axed the plug-in car grant as it ‘has little effect’ on the current explosion in new electric car sales.
The government has axed the plug-in car grant as it ‘has little effect’ on the current explosion in new electric car sales.
The Department for Transport (DfT) said today (June 14) that the scheme – which gives a £1,500 discount on cars costing less than £32,000 – will be closed to new car orders. The move comes as full-electric car sales have risen by 70 per cent in the last year.
In the announcement, the DfT said the funding will now be ‘refocussed’ on the ‘main barriers in the EV transition’, namely public charging. The grant is only ending for cars, however, and does not affect plug-in taxis, small and large trucks and vans, mopeds, motorcycles and wheelchair accessible vehicles.
The DfT reiterated the plug-in grant for cars was always ‘temporary’, and that despite reductions in the grant offered and the number of cars it covered, [the reductions] ‘have had little effect on rapidly accelerating sales, or on the continuously growing range of models being manufactured’.
Dealers that have already sold electric cars through the scheme two working days before the announcement today (June 14) will still qualify.
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