Businessgreen.com: UK government reveals support scheme offering £5,000 off the cost of a new car will be replaced by a tiered system based on emissions
The government's popular electric car grant scheme will end this year to be replaced by tiered support system related to vehicle emissions, the government has confirmed.
The current version of the grant, which is based on grants worth up to £5,000 towards the purchase of a new low emission car, has been credited with turning the UK into one of the world's largest electric vehicle (EV) markets since it was introduced in 2011.
Registrations quadrupled to 14,500 in 2014, while almost 12,000 purchases had been made by the end of May this year, industry figures reveal.
But the previous government launched a review of the system earlier this year, streamlining eligible vehicles into three different categories based on their emissions in a bid to "take account of rapidly developing technology, and the growing range of ULEVs [ultra-low emission vehicles] on the market".
The new tiered system will now replace the current universal grant for all vehicles with emissions under 75 grams of CO2 per kilometre at a yet to be determined date this year. Until that date, the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) has said it will honour any deal placed on its system for a qualifying car, provided that the vehicle has been allocated to a customer and is delivered and registered within nine months.
The new system should enable more of the £200m funding set aside for the grant scheme to be targeted at vehicles with the lowest emissions, rather than plug-in hybrids than can travel a short distance on battery power but primarily rely on petrol engines that push up emissions.
OLEV confirmed on Twitter yesterday that the level of grant funding under the new scheme is still to be determined.
The government's popular electric car grant scheme will end this year to be replaced by tiered support system related to vehicle emissions, the government has confirmed.
The current version of the grant, which is based on grants worth up to £5,000 towards the purchase of a new low emission car, has been credited with turning the UK into one of the world's largest electric vehicle (EV) markets since it was introduced in 2011.
Registrations quadrupled to 14,500 in 2014, while almost 12,000 purchases had been made by the end of May this year, industry figures reveal.
But the previous government launched a review of the system earlier this year, streamlining eligible vehicles into three different categories based on their emissions in a bid to "take account of rapidly developing technology, and the growing range of ULEVs [ultra-low emission vehicles] on the market".
The new tiered system will now replace the current universal grant for all vehicles with emissions under 75 grams of CO2 per kilometre at a yet to be determined date this year. Until that date, the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) has said it will honour any deal placed on its system for a qualifying car, provided that the vehicle has been allocated to a customer and is delivered and registered within nine months.
The new system should enable more of the £200m funding set aside for the grant scheme to be targeted at vehicles with the lowest emissions, rather than plug-in hybrids than can travel a short distance on battery power but primarily rely on petrol engines that push up emissions.
OLEV confirmed on Twitter yesterday that the level of grant funding under the new scheme is still to be determined.
