March 2020 update:
Businesses looking to adopt EVs have been incentivised by measures in the March 2020 Budget. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak confirmed that motorists buying electric cars would continue to benefit from the Plug-In Car Grant (until 2022-2023), although it would reduce from £3,500 to £3,000, and cars costing £50,000 or more would be excluded. Read more here>
The good news is, the plug-in car grant (PiCG) provided by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) to encourage drivers into ultra-low emission vehicles will still be available to until 2020. However, it has recently been confirmed that the Government plug-in car grant (PICG) will be changing. 100% electric vehicles will qualify for a reduced grant, although plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) will no longer be eligible. There will be no impact from the grant changes on electric vans and motorbikes. These changes were set to come into effect from the 9th November 2018, however the grant limit was reached early on the 19th October.
This isn’t the huge blow to the electric vehicle world that some news outlets are portraying it as. We knew the pot of funding for this government grant wouldn’t last forever, the fact that it’s run out weeks ahead of what was predicted is really a positive sign of strong electric vehicle adoption. Losing the grant completely on PHEVs has been on the cards for a while – and for us that’s not really a bad thing. We aren’t the biggest fan of PHEVs, see our ‘A PHEV is always greener than a petrol or diesel, right? Wrong.‘ post to find out why. We are firm believers that 100% battery vehicles are the way forward, now that new electric vehicles like the Hyundai Kona EV can comfortably travel 250-300 miles range anxiety really is a thing of the past.
Cars (previously ‘category 1’)
These vehicles have CO2 emissions of less than 50g/km and can travel at least 112km (70 miles) without any CO2 emissions at all. This includes electric cars such as the Kia Soul EV, Renault Zoe, Nissan LEAF and Hyundai IONIQ Electric. The grant available is 35% of the purchase price, capped at £3,500.
Vans category
To qualify for the grant, vans must have emissions below 75g/km and the ability to travel in zero emission mode for at least 10 miles. Current qualifying models include the Renault Kangoo ZE and Nissan E-NV200 electric vans. The grant available is 20% of the purchase price capped at £8,000.
Category 2 and category 3 electric and hybrid vehicles will no longer eligible for the grant.
You can see a full list of the qualifying cars on Gov.uk
It couldn’t be simpler… as your vehicle provider, we do the paperwork for you and include the value of the grant in the lease price.
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