Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to encourage changes from diesel to electric vehicles.

The Government is spending more than £600 million by 2020 to support the development, manufacture and uptake of electric ultra low emission vehicles in the UK. This programme includes grant incentives for motorists to purchases vehicles, and funding for the installation of chargepoints at home and at work. Our aim is that all new cars and vans should be zero emission by 2040. This will mean that almost all cars and vans on our roads are zero emission by 2050.

The tax system also supports the transition to cleaner vehicles, for example pure electric vehicles are exempt from Vehicle Excise Duty. At Autumn Statement 2015 the Chancellor confirmed that the diesel supplement would be retained in company car tax until 2021. HM Treasury has recently consulted on how company car tax can best incentivise ultra low emission vehicles.