Electric Vehicles

(asked on 1st July 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to incentivise the take-up of electric vehicles in areas with high levels of pollution.


Answered by
Michael Ellis Portrait
Michael Ellis
This question was answered on 8th July 2019

The UK Government takes its air quality obligations extremely seriously and is firmly committed to improving the UK’s air quality and cutting harmful emissions. In July 2017, we published the UK Plan for Tackling Roadside Nitrogen Dioxide Concentrations, setting out how we will achieve compliance in the shortest possible time. As a result of this, we are now working closely with 61 English local authorities, and have placed legal duties on them to tackle their nitrogen dioxide exceedances. This is underpinned by £495m in funding, including £220m Clean Air Fund to mitigate the impact of the plans on individuals and businesses. This funding can include, where appropriate, funding towards incentivising take up of electric vehicles.

To support the transition to zero emission vehicles, we are investing nearly £1.5bn‎ between April 2015 and March 2021, with grants available for plug in vehicles, and schemes to support charge point infrastructure at homes and workplaces and on residential streets. We have made real progress to date. 200,000 ultra-low emission vehicles are now registered in the UK, and we now have over 20,000 publicly accessible chargepoints. More than 2,000 are rapid devices – one of the largest networks in Europe.

In London, the Plug-in Car Grant (PIGC) paid out £45m in respect of vehicles registered in London.

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