Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many and what proportion of vehicles in the car fleet for (a) Ministers and (b) senior officials are pure electric cars.

The Government Car Service (GCS) provide a Departmental Pool Car Service to Departments as a shared resource. Ministers have access to this service which is managed by the receiving Department. The GCS currently operates 38 battery electric cars (33% of the GCS fleet). Initial capital costs to procure battery electric cars for the GCS fleet incurred an uplift of at least 18% compared to a similar fit for purpose car.

A comparison of annual running costs is not held at present by GCS. This is due to the fact that the electric battery fleet is charged at multiple locations across numerous Government departments, and that data is not recorded. However, in many cases, electric vehicles continue to benefit from significant savings on the cost of fuel. Charging a medium sized electric car at rates equivalent to the January 2024 electricity price cap equates to around half the cost of filling up an equivalent petrol vehicle. In addition to this, electric vehicles generally cost less to maintain due to fewer moving parts than their petrol or diesel equivalents.