The Department for Transport has updated its guidance for the Electric Car Grant (ECG), setting the price cap to £42,000 for trim variants.
From today (29 August), it has announced that there is now an upper threshold of £42,000 for trim variants on cars, where the base model is under £37,000.
Originally, the UK Government had said that eligibility for the ECG was based on the cheapest version of the car, with only a single version of the vehicle needing to be under the £37,000 level or under to qualify.
But now it has said that an upper threshold of £42,000 has come into effect for the more expensive variants of the base model.
In effect, it means that any vehicle which has more expensive trim levels over £42,000 – regardless if whether the base model is under £37,000 – will not qualify and are not eligible for grant support.
It closes a potential loophole where drivers were able to buy cars with a government grant on vehicles priced significantly over the £37,000 level.
There are a number of vehicles which qualify for the grant, but have trim levels that take the price considerably over the £42,000 level – for example, the Nissan Ariya, Volkswagen ID.3 or Peugeot e-408 GT – where variants are several thousand pounds over the new price cap.
The news follows Ford this week becoming the first manufacturer to receive the £3,750 Electric Car Grant discount from the UK Government, the first time the full discount has been applied.
The Ford Puma Gen-E and Ford e-Tourneo Courier received the discount, bringing the total list of current eligible vehicles in the UK to 28.
Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, said:
“We’re putting money back in people’s pockets and making it easier and cheaper for families to make the switch to electric, by delivering discounts of up to £3,750 on EVs.
“In total, the government is investing over £4.5 billion to turbocharge the switch to EVs for both industry and consumers, securing the UK’s position as a world-leader in EV adoption – with Britain Europe’s largest EV market in 2024 and sales up almost a third so far this year.”
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