Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment the Government has made of the potential merits of offering financial incentives to encourage people to buy an electric car; and if he will make a statement.

Financial incentives help to offset the upfront price premium of an electric vehicle and are therefore important to encouraging motorists to make the switch, and have been made available by Government for the past seven years.

We have a support package worth nearly £1.5 billion to encourage early market growth, including a variety of grant funding schemes such as the Plug-in Car Grant, which offers up to £4,500 off the cost of a new electric car. There are also grants to put the necessary charging infrastructure in place and positive incentives for electric vehicles in the UK tax framework.

These incentives support our ambition to end the sale of new conventional petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040, helping to meet our long term climate and air quality goals as well as positioning the UK as a global leader in electric vehicle technology and use.