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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that electric vehicles are affordable.

The Government’s current intervention in the electric vehicle market aims to accelerate upfront price parity between electric and internal combustion engine equivalents, making electric vehicles more affordable for all consumers.

We are supporting R&D to ensure that technologies for electric vehicles are developed and brought to market as early as possible. This includes support for power electronics and motors, and the development of battery technology through the £274 million Faraday Battery Challenge.

We are also incentivising demand to allow those technologies to reach the mass market and scale as early as possible. In addition, government grants for plug-in vehicles continue 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 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.