SHOCK END TO THE ELECTRIC CAR GRANT
THE cost of buying a more modestly priced electric car rose suddenly this week as the Government on Tuesday withdrew without warning the remaining £1,500 plug-in car grant to encourage take-up of green zeroemissions vehicles.
With petrol and diesel hitting £2 per litre on the forecourt pushing average fill-ups to exceed £100 — and with adoption of battery-powered cars rising — ministers judged the time was right to axe the taxpayer subsidy.
The grant has been falling steadily from the original high of £5,000 offered in 2011 — when 1,000 electric cars were bought with it — to the £1,500 grant with a £32,000 price cap which existed until Tuesday, with 100,000 cars using it so far this year. Ministers say £1.4 billion of grants have helped stimulate sales of half a million electric cars over a decade, and that the cash would now be re-focused on other areas such as more charging points. But the decision was met with disappointment by motoring groups and the industry, who warn it will put a severe brake on Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and the Government’s ambition to meet targets to lower emissions and to ban the sale of pure petrol and diesel cars by 2030.
Ginny Buckley, founder and CEO of electric car consumer website Electri fying.com said: ‘Electric cars are already out of reach for many, and I fear scrapping the grant entirely pushes us further down the road of becoming a two-tier nation when it comes to ownership.
‘This grant made a big difference to many hard-working families and removing it seems short sighted.’