Government Pulls The Plug On The Plug-In Grant For EVs

David Bailey
 
The really surprising thing about the UK government announcing recently that it was scrapping the plug-in car grant (PICG) for battery electric vehicles is that it was actually a surprise at all.
First introduced in 2011 and worth £5000, over time the PICG was whittled down and narrowed in scope several times. By March 2021 it had been cut to £2,500, and only available for EVs worth less than £35,000. In December 2021, the PICG was cut again to £1500 and in its last incarnation was only available to EVs costing less than £32,000.
And the government had been trying for some time to scrap it completely. Only a major backlash a couple of years ago when it last tried to scrap the PICG forced the government to do a speedy handbrake turn and keep it going for a while longer.
That doesn’t mean the announcement has been well handled. It hasn’t.
The ongoing high level of demand for EVs (with demand actually outstripping supply) meant that the Treasury finally had enough of s...