Electric car grant expanded to offer discount on more new models
The price of five electric cars has been cut as the UK Government widens a scheme to encourage people to switch.
The decision means 22 cars are eligible for the electric car grant, with prices reduced by up to £1,500.
Models from Volkswagen, Peugeot and Cupra have been added to the list.
It is part of a £650 million investment by ministers to get people to move away from petrol or diesel cars.
The new cars subject to the £1,500 discount are the Cupra Born, Volkswagen ID.3, Peugeot e-208, Peugeot e-2008 and Peugeot e-Rifter.
The cost represents a 4% discount on the Cupra. The carmaker’s website is advertising the car for £37,460.
The Volkswagen is being advertised for £30,860, and the Peugeot models range from £20,245 to about £35,000.
Registration
The number of electric cars registered in the first quarter of 2025 was 43% higher than the same period last year, according to figures published this week.
DVLA data showed more than 120,000 zero-emissions cars were registered between January and March this year.
Electric cars made up a fifth of registrations, up by 3% compared with the year before.
The Government said it is also investing in electric car charging infrastructure in an attempt to reduce carbon emissions.
However the attempts to move people away from petrol and diesel has been criticised by some who claim electric cars are also damaging to the environment because of the precious metals that need to be mined for batteries.
Broadened the initiative
The announcement comes a week after the Government last broadened the initiative. Earlier in August it added 13 models, including cars produced by Nissan, Renault and Vauxhall.
At the time, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the Government was “delivering on our promise to make it easier and cheaper for families to go electric”.
She added: “This is about backing drivers, putting money back into people’s pockets and creating the jobs and growth that will drive Britain forward.”
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With the average price of a new electric car over 30k it’s out of most people’s price range. It will not be until the prices comes down, there are more second hand electric cars around and more reliable, quick changing points (writing as someone with a hybrid car in the valleys, there are not enough charging points and they are slow), that the use of fossil fuel cars will really begin to decline. That’s not going to happen any time soon.
China is producing family electric cars for £15K
Guys building them are on low wages too. Therein lies the problem with exporting real value adding jobs to low wage economies especially when those economies are accelerating along the technology curve at a rate far in excess of our own. UK and much of EU now reduced to a relatively narrow base of specialist manufacture with the rest of the working population tucked into bureaucratic administrative roles with little or no value added. Soon those roles will be shrunk further by application of AI and other processing methodologies and we’ll be well and truly a low level service economy… Read more »
UBI