THE Office for Low Emissions Vehicles in the Department for Transport is reporting a big jump in sales for plug-in cars – a category that includes both pure electric cars and plug-in hybrids, which are able to travel for significant distances in electric-only mode but also have a diesel or petrol engine as a back-up.
Between July and September, the government provided the plug-in car grant for 5,000 vehicles – that was more than double the number in the previous three months and getting on for a third of all the grants approved since the scheme was first introduced back in 2010.
The government expects to spend about £500 million on the plug-in car grant and other measures designed to encourage the take-up of plug-ins between 2015 and 2020.
One likely reason for the recent strong growth in sales: after the initial wave of new-generation electric models – mainly the Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi i-MiEV and Renault Zoe – hit the market a year or two ago, there was something of a lull in new product launches but 2014 has seen a second strong crop of new models.
BMW has introduced the innovative i3 and the i8, and Volkswagen has started selling electric versions of its popular Golf and Up!
The plug-in hybrid version of Mitsubishi’s Outlander has also generated plenty of interest, although another model that did so much to generate interest in plug-ins, the Vauxhall Ampera/Chevrolet Volt now seems to be fading away.
One point for company car drivers to look out for – the plug-in car grant, which is £5,000 for cars and £8,000 for vans, does not affect the P11D values of the models concerned, so it is the company, rather than the driver, that benefits.