Government redirects EV car grant to public charging and other vehicle types

The UK government is closing the plug-in car grant scheme originally put in place in 2011 to stimulate sales of fully-electric cars. Instead, the government says, it will refocus £300M in grant funding towards what it believes are the main barriers to the EV transition, including public charging and supporting the purchase of other road vehicles where the switch to electric requires further development.

In part the decision was guided by a recent report which concluded that with rapidly accelerating EV sales and successive reductions in the size of the grant and the number of models it covered, the grant no longer had a significant effect on either sales or the range of models available.

UK transport minister Trudy Harrison said, “The government continues to invest record amounts in the transition to EVs, but government funding must always be invested where it has the highest impact if that success story is to continue.

“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.”