Electric Vehicles

(asked on 26th February 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what impact, if any, the introduction of electric vehicles has had on sales of new cars; and how they intend to encourage additional demand for electric vehicles through the provision of incentives.


Answered by
Lord Callanan Portrait
Lord Callanan
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
This question was answered on 9th March 2020

In 2019, registrations of battery electric vehicles were at record levels. This was almost double compared to 2018 with nearly 38,000 units sold, overtaking plug-in hybrid electric vehicle registrations for the first time, at nearly 35,000 units. There were over 2.3 million new car registrations in 2019; a decline of 2.4% compared to 2018. Falling car sales are in line with other countries in Europe, including Germany and France, as a result of global slowdown and changing consumer demand.

Government grants for plug-in vehicles are available to help reduce the upfront purchase price of electric vehicles. Drivers of ultra-low emission vehicles also receive other benefits, including lower tax rates and grants towards the installation of chargepoints. For example, all zero emission models will pay no company car tax in 2020-21 and 1% in 2021-22, before returning to the planned 2% rate in 2022-23 – a significant tax saving for employees and employers.

Local authorities may also provide additional incentives such as free parking or exemption from the congestion charge.

We stated in our Road to Zero Strategy that consumer incentives will continue to play a role beyond 2020.

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