EV Government & Legislation

In 2018 the UK Government announced their Road to Zero Strategy, a long-term plan to tackle rising CO2 levels in the UK by moving towards to zero-emission road transport.

Transport is the UK’s biggest source of carbon emissions, with petrol and diesel vehicles contributing to this substantially. Addressing this, the government’s ambition sees between 50-75% of all new car sales and 40% of van sales being ultra low emission by 2030, and by 2040, the sale of new petrol & diesel vehicles ending. The Road to Zero strategy outlines how the government plans to achieve this.

To increase the uptake of low emission vehicles, the government has committed to the following:

  • Grants, funding and subsides to encourage the purchase of zero-emission vehicles
  • Grants and funding for research and development into clean technologies
  • Preferential tax rates for the lowest emitting vehicles
  • Implementation of new measures to dissuade the use of higher emission vehicles
  • Zero-emission vehicle quotas for central and local government fleets

The UK Government has also committed to invest in to charging infrastructure through the following methods:

  • Grants, funding and subsidies to support the installation of charging infrastructure
  • Business incentives to provide charge points to employees
  • Smart charge points to become the UK standard so that the grid can cope with the increase electrification
  • Charge points to be installed as part of new developments via a planning reform

You can read the full Road to Zero strategy here .

In addition to the Road to Zero strategy, Clean Air Zones (CAZ) and Ultra-Low Emission Zones (ULEZ) have been introduced around the country to tackle emissions and congestion in cities. You can read our guides to local Ultra Low Emission Zone and Clean Air Zone developments below.

  • Clean Air Zones

    Everything you need to know about Clean Air Zones across the UK.

  • Ultra Low Emission Zones

    Central London has seen the introduction of the Ultra Low Emission Zone.

  • Congestion Charges in London

    Everything you need about Congestion Charges in the capital.

Incentives, Grants & Funding for EVs

The good news is that to support the uptake of electric vehicles, the government have put in place a number of great incentives- for both businesses and individuals. Take a look at which ones may help you on your EV journey.

The grant will pay up to £2,500 for small vans (< 2.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight) and £5,000 for large vans (2.5t-3.5t GVW). Find out more about the grants and what vehicles are included here: https://www.gov.uk/plug-in-car-van-grants

The EV chargepoint grant provides funding of up to 75% towards the cost of installing electric vehicle smart chargepoints at domestic properties across the UK. It replaced the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS) on 1 April 2022.

You can find out more about the scheme here, or find out more about Pod Point our approved home charge point provider here.

The Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) provides eligible business with support towards workplace electric vehicle charging points.

 

Find out more, here.

The ORCS provides local authorities with grant funding towards the cost of installing on-street residential charge points. Find out more here.

The Benefit-in-kind (BIK) tax on cars during 2022 / 2023 is as low as 2% for electric vehicles. This also applies to hybrid vehicles with emissions from 1 – 50g/km and a pure electric range of over 130 miles. The government has also announced the tax rate for the upcoming years, to help businesses and company car drivers to plan ahead – it will remain 2% in 2023/2024 and 2024/2025.

Electric vehicles are currently exempt from VED. Plug-in hybrids are likely to cost between £0 and £105 for the first year depending on CO2 emissions, and then increase to £145 each year after.

Buying an electric vehicle means you are eligible for 100% first year capital allowances, meaning you can deduct the full cost of the vehicle from your pre-tax profits.

As well as the employee paying BiK tax on their car, the employer must also pay employer’s national insurance
on the car’s BiK value, this is currently set at 13.8%.

National Insurance: As Class 1 National Insurance Contributions (NICs) for company cars are based on official CO2 figures, employers who provide low emissions electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles to employees pay less NICs. For an electric vehicle where the CO2 is 0, the BiK rate is 2%.

NIC = P11D value x BIK rate based on CO2 x 13.8%

With the increase of CAZs, ZEZs, LEZs and ULEZ being introduced around the country and in London with fees designed to discourage polluting vehicles from entering certain areas, a key benefit of an electric vehicle is being exempt from these charges.

View our interactive map.