The UK government has recently announced changes to its low-emission, plug-in grant.
The previous £3,000 grant has now been cut to £2,500 for electric vehicles (EV’s), and changes to the eligibility for certain models has also been revised.
Originally launched in 2011, the Plug-In Grants (PiCG) offered up to £5,000 off the purchase price for a brand new EV. However, this has now been halved and from this week, only vehicles with values of £35,000 and under will be capable of claiming this grant.
This has sparked understandable cause for concern, not least as news of this development lands shortly after the government made announcements and a pathway for all petrol and diesel vehicle sales to be banned by 2030. The decision to make EVs more expensive for consumers to purchase has also raised criticism throughout the motoring and car manufacturer industry. There has been a collective ‘pointing out’ that MPs should be encouraging drivers to make the switch to Evs, not make it more challenging for them.
Transport minister, Rachel Maclean, stated “We want as many people as possible to be able to make the switch to electric vehicles… We are re-focusing our vehicle grants on the more affordable zero-emission vehicles.”
The move means the UK’s most popular EV, the Tesla Model 3 (priced from £40,490), no longer qualifies for the scheme, while Ford’s all-new Mustang Mach-E is also priced out of the grant, with an on-the-road price starting from £40,270.
So what cars do qualify for the PiCG?
If your EV has a range of 70 miles making zero emissions, and a manufacturer quoted CO2 emissions figure of less than 50g/km, then it will qualify for this grant.
If you head over to the government’s website (link below), you will find a full list of vehicles which are included and eligible for the grant. Some of these include well-known brand names such as the Vauxhall Corsa-e, the Volkswagen e-Golf, the Nissan Leaf Acenta and the Renault ZOE.
Could we see manufacturers reducing their costs to fall in line with this grant? Time will tell……
Low-emission vehicles eligible for a plug-in grant – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
