The vast majority of UK government grants for ultra-low emission vehicles have been awarded to commercial fleets, figures from the Office for Low-Emission Vehicles reveal. The UK grant has been available since January and provides up to £5,000 to offset the additional costs of acquiring an EV.
Of the around 800 cars that have received a Plug-In Car Grant this year, three in four are for business use and only one in four, or 200 electric cars, have been purchased for private use. This in spite of significant advertising campaigns, the £5,000 grant and the superb Nissan Leaf.
Why so few? The cars are simply too expensive to purchase compared to their conventional equivalents. in addition, there are too many unaddressed concerns (compounded by certain sections of the media) over range, charging infrastructure and battery replacement costs.
To put this in perspective, as far back 2006 as I was selling nearly twice as many G-Wiz EVs per year in London alone. No infrastructure, no grant and much less awareness. But they cost less than £10,000 on the road.
The demand is there, just not at current prices.
