Fears electric car grant ‘confusion’ could delay EV registrations

New electric vehicle (EV) buyers are delaying their purchase due to confusion over which models will qualify for the new electric car grant. 

The Government is offering up to £3,750 off a new EV thanks to the £650 million scheme it launched last week.

To qualify, it says electric cars must have a recommended retail price (RRP) of £37,000 or less, with two levels of grant available depending on the carmaker’s sustainability standards.

The ‘greenest’ vehicles in band one will receive up to £3,750, with band two vehicles receiving up to £1,500.

The electric car grant (ECG) requires manufacturers to have committed to a verified science-based target (SBT) and have embodied carbon scores below a certain threshold.

The Government has already suggested that Chinese-made EVs will struggle to qualify. 

Even models sold by European brands that are produced in China, or have EV batteries made in that country, are less likely to get the grant or may only receive a discount of £1,500, according to What Car?

Meanwhile, those from the same brand that are built in Europe, with batteries sourced from there, are more likely to qualify for the full £3,750. 

Furthermore, What Car? says that consumers cannot safely assume that all versions of a specific model will get the grant, because the eligibility criteria also depends on the size of the car’s battery pack.

It means that one model with a smaller battery might get the discount, and another with an equally low starting price but a bigger capacity battery might not. 

Confusingly, What Car? reports that the grant is not only being given to cars with a recommended retail price of £37,000 or less.

If the cheapest version of a model costs less than £37,000 and qualifies for the grant, all the pricier trim levels above it will also get the grant as long as they have the same size battery. 

To add another complication, What Car? says that there is also an as-yet-unknown safety aspect to the grant, which will mean that some cars that are cheap but do not have the highest safety rating will also be disqualified.

In research conducted since the electric car grant’s launch, it found that people are putting EV adoption plans on hold, because they don’t know which electric cars will be eligible for the EV grant.

One in five (21%) in-market EV buyers told What Car? they are now delaying their purchase to wait for details of the discount. 

Although the Government has said car dealers will be able to process discounts online for new car buyers at showrooms from August 11, reports suggest that manufacturers may not find out which of their models will be eligible for the grants of £1,500 to £3,750 until late August, just before the September plate change. 

Any delay could dent sales at one of the busiest times of the year, with the September plate change on the horizon. Last year, 50,000 new EVs were registered during September.

What Car? consumer editor, Claire Evans, said: “The introduction of the EV grant is a welcome initiative that will benefit many EV buyers in the long-term, but the Government needs to act quickly to quell uncertainty about which models will qualify so that sales in the important September plate-change period are not dented.”