Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2019 to Question 271500, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the changes to electric vehicle plug-in grants announced in November 2018 on the uptake of electric vehicles after 2021.

The plug-in car grant (PICG) was introduced in 2011 to support the early market for ultra low emission vehicles (ULEVs). Through the PICG we have supported the purchase of over 200,000 plug-in vehicles, including around 100,000 plug-in hybrid vehicles. Last year, in light of increased demand and decreasing prices, we reviewed the PICG to focus on the cleanest vehicles. While sales of plug-in hybrids have decreased since the grant was reviewed, sales of zero emission cars are up by more than 60% in 2019 so far than for the same period in 2018. Overall, sales of all alternatively fuelled cars have increased this year, compared to the same period last year. In our Road to Zero Strategy we set out ambitions for uptake of ULEVs in the UK, and stated that consumer incentives in some form will continue to play a role beyond 2020. In addition, to accelerate the shift to zero emission cars, all zero emission models will pay no company car tax in 2020-21, 1% in 2021-22 before returning to the planned 2% rate in 2022-23 – a significant tax saving for employees and employers.