By Sachin Ravikumar
LONDON, July 14 (Reuters)
The UK’s electric vehicle (EV) landscape seems to be ever evolving. And at a rapid pace, that is. The options in cars to choose from are vast with almost 100 different types available, more or less. These vary between your compact little city cars to your bigger family-type vehicles such as SUVs. There are even some high-performance models available for those sharing this type of preference. With the offerings so big, there should be a vehicle to suit any need and budget.
What is the current sales prognosis for EVs?
The British government will offer discounts worth up to 3,750 pounds ($5,037.00) to buyers of electric cars priced at 37,000 pounds or below, it said on Monday, under a new scheme that aims to better align consumer demand with net zero emissions targets. The government will spend 650 million pounds on the discount scheme, which will be available from Wednesday to consumers once carmakers sign up for the scheme.
As part of a wider goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, Britain wants to phase out sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030. But demand for electric cars has stalled with consumers citing high upfront costs as the main barrier. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander mentioned:
“This EV grant will not only allow people to keep more of their hard-earned money – it’ll help our automotive sector seize one of the biggest opportunities of the 21st century.”
The scheme follows calls from the automotive industry for EV incentives, as carmakers effectively need to sell more EVs each year to meet emissions targets, or pay fines. EV incentives usually provide a form of benefit to the consumer. These benefits can be varied and dependent on a lot of factors. The whole purpose behind this is to provide a form of encouragement to consumers to purchase and use electric vehicles as an indirect means also to protect the environment and add on to the goals of climate change.
A promising discount and incentive system?
Britain scrapped a previous incentive scheme for electric vehicle purchases in 2022 as the then-Conservative government shifted focus to spending on expanding the public charging network. A number of European countries including Norway – which has the highest percentage of electric cars in Europe – as well as France and Germany offer incentives for EV buyers including subsidies and exemption from taxes.
To get a better understanding of the figures of Norway, one can just look back to 2024. Within this past year almost nine out of every ten new vehicles sold in this country was powered completely by batteries. This was achievable due to a number of factors, such as some progressive policies, government incentives as well as an environmentally conscious population.
The UK changing the tide on car sales
The British government in April relaxed some of the EV sales targets for carmakers, as the industry coped with new tariffs on sales to the U.S., its second largest market after the European Union. Ginny Buckley, chief executive of advice website Electrifying.com, said nearly one in two electric models will be cheaper thanks to the “long overdue” incentives.
The government said the 650-million-pound funding for the Electric Car Grant will be available until 2028/29. By contrast, carmakers had spent around 6.5 billion pounds on electric car discounts since the government’s EV sales targets were introduced at the start of 2024, Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders CEO Mike Hawes told reporters last month.
Hawes welcomed the new grant on Monday, saying it was a “clear signal” that now was the time for drivers to switch to an electric car. Apart from the direct benefit that these types of grants offer, there also may be other things forth flowing from this, such as the possibility of price wars. This may not be as far-fetched as one would think. Some players within the manufacturing industry have already started responding on this.