Government budget provides ongoing £7,500 grant to support taxi drivers' move to ZEC cabs
Updated: Mar 13, 2020
The government will continue to provide grants to support the purchase and move towards zero emission taxis.
The news announced by the Government earlier this week as part of the Budget cements the continuation of a vehicle grant scheme worth up to £7,500 for taxi drivers and fleet owners.
Zero-emission cars priced below £50,000 will also be eligible to receive a grant of up to £3,000. The rates of all of the plug-in vehicle grants are however subject to review over time, depending on how the market develops.
The plug-in car grant scheme has been in place since 2011 to support the uptake of ultra-low emission vehicles. The grant rate was originally set at £5,000 for all eligible ultra low emission cars. In 2018, the grant was changed to focus on zero-emission cars.
The Plug-In Car Grant (PICG) has supported over 200,000 ULEVs, of which over 100,000 are zero emission vehicles (ZEVs).
The budget announced earlier this week that government is providing £532million for consumer incentives for ultra-low emission vehicles. As part of that:
government will provide £403million for the PICG, extending it to 2022-23
recognising that the market for other ultra-low emission vehicles is still at an early stage of development, the government will also provide £129.5million to extend the plug-in grants for vans, taxis and motorcycles to 2022-23.
To date, the PICG has provided over £800million to support the early market for ultra-low emission vehicles, which now represent almost 6% of the new car market. Of this, over £450million was spent on ZEVs, which now represent almost three percent of the new car market.
