“Without any government financial incentive, there’s no reason for the consumer to make the switch.”
He was echoed by SMMT CEO Mike Hawes, who said the “government has been keen to assure the UK automotive industry’s competitiveness” but “there is little to help consumer demand”.
Hawes suggested that reducing VAT on new EVs and adjusting taxation rates would also have been welcome measures.
More recently, Volkswagen Group UK managing director Alex Smith said grants would be an “eminently sensible” means of signalling “that this is the direction of travel”.
Smith added: “We would be absolutely in favour of well-targeted, specific and realistic incentives to signal that decarbonisation of road transportation is the aim and that battery-electric vehicles are a very, very significant tool in achieving that.”
And in the Electric Vehicles report, the Environment and Climate Change Committee suggests “the government should explore targeted grants to incentivise the purchase of EVs with a view of facilitating a list price under an appropriate threshold”.
It says this would “stimulate the affordable market”, while facilitating a shift towards EVs achieving price parity with combustion cars and “help counteract the trend towards SUVs which have broader environmental costs”.
