Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many purchases of (a) small and (b) large vans have been supported through the plug-in grant in each year since its inception.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
21,218 grants have been awarded for small vans and 11,315 grants for large vans since 2019. A further 5,070 vans were awarded grants between 2012 and 2018.
Data collected on the category of van when applying for a grant has changed over time owing to grant eligibility, and we are only able to differentiate between small and large vans from 2019 onwards.
Small | Large | |
2012 | 118 | |
2013 | 202 | |
2014 | 374 | |
2015 | 950 | |
2016 | 859 | |
2017 | 1,153 | |
2018 | 1,414 | |
2019 | 3,185 | 12 |
2020 | 5,334 | 79 |
2021 | 10,954 | 6,000 |
YTD 2022 | 1,745 | 5,224 |
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to (a) increase the number of electric vehicle charging points in Wiltshire and (b) help people to purchase electric vehicles.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Government has committed £2.5 billion since 2020 to support the transition to zero emission vehicles, with funding to offset their higher upfront cost, and to accelerate the rollout of chargepoint infrastructure.
Government has pledged at least £500 million to support local chargepoint provision. As part of this, the Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) fund will provide approximately £400 million of capital and £50 million of resource funding to support local authorities to work with industry and transform the availability of charging for drivers without off-street parking.
The Government is also supporting local authorities through the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS) which has £20 million available this year. To date, Wiltshire County Council have not submitted an application to the ORCS, we would encourage them to take advantage of this funding.
Local authorities, such as Wiltshire County Council, will have a key role to play in the rolling out of chargepoints as they are best placed to consider local needs. In the UK’s EV Charging Infrastructure Strategy, published in March 2022, Government announced it will require all local transport authorities in England to develop their own chargepoint strategies, subject to consultation.
To support drivers across the UK to switch to cleaner vehicles, Plug-in Vehicle Grants will continue until at least financial year 2023/24 for taxis and motorcycles, and 2024/25 for vans, trucks and wheelchair accessible vehicles. We have also put in place generous tax incentives including: favourable benefit in kind tax rates out to 2025, all zero emission cars are exempt from vehicle excise duty (VED), and, zero emissions vans pay a nil rate of tax on the van benefit charge.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the cessation of the electrical vehicle grant, what additional steps his Department is taking to help encourage the public to purchase electric vehicles.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
This Government has committed £2.5 billion since 2020 to support the transition to zero emission vehicles, with funding to offset their higher upfront cost, and to accelerate the rollout of chargepoint infrastructure.
Although Government has recently closed the plug-in car grant to new orders, Plug-in Grants will continue until at least financial year 2023/24 for taxis and motorcycles, and 2024/25 for vans, trucks and wheelchair accessible vehicles.
Plug-in Grants are just one way in which Government supports electric vehicle uptake. We have put in place favourable benefit in kind tax rates for zero emission vehicles out to 2025: company car tax was 1% in 2021/22 and 2% in 2022/23 through to 2024/25. Further, all zero emission cars are exempt from vehicle excise duty (VED) and zero emissions vans pay a nil rate of tax on the van benefit charge.
In addition, we announced in the Net Zero Strategy that we will introduce a zero-emission vehicle mandate, setting targets for a percentage of manufacturers' new car and van sales to be zero emission each year from 2024.
In March we published our ambitious electric vehicle infrastructure strategy, backed by £1.6 billion of funding, setting out our vision and commitments to make electric vehicle charging cheaper and more convenient than refueling at a petrol station, supporting drivers across the whole country to make the transition to a cleaner, greener vehicle.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the total value of grants for purchases of electric vehicles in each of the last three years.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The total value of the plug-in car grant, and all plug-in vehicle grants, over the previous three years is as follows:
Plug-in Car Grant | All Plug-in Grants | |
2019 | 142,952,702 | 173,713,425 |
2020 | 234,862,457 | 272,851,251 |
2021 | 302,836,188 | 376,664,114 |
Total | 680,651,347 | 823,228,790 |
NB: ‘All Plug-in Grants’ captures expenditure across cars, taxis, wheelchair accessible vehicles, vans, motorcycles and trucks.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to appoint a delivery body to (1) supervise, and (2) lead, Project Rapid; and what are the (a) targets, and (b) funding, associated with the project.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles has reviewed options for its delivery body and will make its formal appointment after the approval of its Outline Business Case by HMT. This is expected to be within the next 12 months.
The roll out of rapid charging is an opportunity to remove range anxiety for electric vehicle drivers across the roads network. By 2023, we aim to have at least six high -powered, open access chargepoints at motorway service areas in England, with some larger sites having ten to twelve. By 2035, we expect the number to increase to around 6,000 high powered chargers across the network. Government expects the private sector to deliver this wherever possible.
To support our aims and to ensure the private sector can continue to expand the charging network at pace in the 2020s, the Government will invest £950 million in future proofing grid capacity at motorway and major A road service areas to prepare the network for uptake of zero emission cars and vans ahead of need.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the strategic priority of electric vehicles in meeting the UK's clean air goals.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Phasing out the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2035 will reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions faster. Cars and vans represent one fifth of UK domestic CO2 emissions and accounted for 71% of domestic UK transport emissions in 2019. Ending the sale of new conventional petrol and diesel cars and vans will also help improve air quality through the phased elimination of tailpipe emissions. A Government research project to assess the impact of the shift to electric vehicles on non-exhaust emissions from tyre and brake wear is underway and will report in 2023.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of electric vehicle use for decreasing air pollution in cities.
Answered by George Freeman
The transition to electric vehicles is expected to bring air quality, emissions, and economic benefits. The UK was the first G7 country to commit to phasing out the sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of extending the Plug-in Car Grant beyond March 2023 to support SMEs with their transition to net zero vehicles.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Since 2010, the plug-in car grant has provided over £1.3 billion to support the early market for ultra-low emission vehicles. The grant provides up to £1,500 for those making the switch to eligible electric cars. Both businesses and private customers are eligible to benefit from the grant discount as long as they are based in the UK. In 2021 industry statistics show that battery electric vehicles were 11.6 per cent of the new car market, up 76.3 per cent on 2020.
The increasing choice of new vehicles, growing demand from customers, and rapidly rising number of chargepoints means that while the level of funding remains as high as ever, we are re-focusing our vehicle grants on the more affordable zero emission vehicles – where most consumers will be looking and where taxpayers’ money will make more of a difference.
Building on the £1.9bn from Spending Review 2020, the Government has committed an additional £620m to support the transition to electric vehicles. The additional funding will support the rollout of charging infrastructure, with a particular focus on local on-street residential charging, and targeted plug in grants.
There are also incentives in the tax system to stimulate uptake of zero emission vehicles. The March 2020 Budget extended the favourable benefit in kind tax rates for zero emission vehicles to 2025: company car tax is 1 per cent in 2021/22 and 2 per cent in 2022/23 through to 2024-25. Further, all zero emission cars are exempt from vehicle excise duty (VED) and zero emissions vans pay a nil rate of tax on the van benefit charge.
We have been clear since 2018 that the plug-in grants will eventually end and that we keep all grants under review to ensure the best value for taxpayers’ money.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department has taken to expand access to (a) electric charging stations, (b) compressed hydrogen and (c) bio-fuels at fuelling stations across the UK.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Government and industry have supported the installation of over 28,000 publicly available charging devices including more than 5,100 rapid devices – one of the largest networks of rapids in Europe. The Government will provide over £1.3 billion over the next four years to support the continued roll-out of chargepoints on motorways and major A roads, in homes and businesses and on-street. Government’s forthcoming EV Infrastructure Strategy will define our vision for the continued roll-out of a world-leading charging infrastructure network across the UK. The strategy will be published soon.
The UK is well placed to lead on hydrogen powered transport, and government is supporting the use of hydrogen cars, vans, buses and lorries through our £23m Hydrogen for Transport programme. As of December 2021, there are fourteen publicly accessible hydrogen refuelling stations across the UK providing hydrogen for road vehicles, with just over 350 hydrogen vehicles operating on UK roads. Additional refuelling infrastructure will be deployed as part of our plans to demonstrate at scale hydrogen fuel cell trucks on UK roads.
One of the benefits of biofuels is that they can be deployed using existing infrastructure. The Department has supported the supply of liquid biofuels at fuelling stations across the UK through the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation which has been successful for 13 years in promoting a market for biofuels. The recent introduction of E10 in September 2021 now means that up to 10% bioethanol is blended into petrol while diesel is also blended with up to 7% biodiesel, a grade known as B7.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department plans to offer incentives to support individuals and organisations to purchase hydrogen vehicles.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Government offers grants to offset the higher upfront cost of zero emission cars, vans, trucks, motorbikes and taxis and is also supporting the development of hydrogen vehicles, particularly larger vehicles like HGVs and buses.
We will be expanding our Zero Emission Road Freight Trials programme to trial three zero emission HGV technologies at scale on UK roads, including hydrogen fuel cells. Furthermore, local areas will be able to apply for funding for both battery electric buses and hydrogen fuel cell buses depending on which technology is best suited to their local areas. Funding schemes include the £120m Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas Scheme – open to bids from local authorities – while at SR21 £355m of new funding was made available for zero emission buses.