The Government Plug-in Car Grant (PICG) and the Plug-in Van Grant (PIVG) rates and eligibility have changed. Perceived as quite the shock to many drivers, as much of these changes apply with immediate effect. All changes to the grant apply from 07:00 yesterday (Wednesday 15th December 2021). Unfortunately, the Office for Zero-Emission Vehicles does not provide any notice ahead of any changes.
Plug-in Car Grant
The grant was previously capped at 35% of the purchase price up to £2,500.
This has now been reduced to:
- 35% of the purchase price, up to £1500 or 35% of the purchase price, up to £2,500 for cars which are converted to wheelchair accessible.
Eligibility changes
The grant was previously limited to:
- Cars must cost less than £35,000. This is the recommended retail price (RRP) inclusive of VAT and delivery fees.
- The vehicle has a CO2 emission of less than 50g/km.
- The vehicle can travel at least 70 miles without any emissions at all.
The grant has now been changed to:
- Cars must cost less than £32,000. (Cars which are converted to wheelchair accessible must cost less than £35,000)
- These vehicles have no tailpipe CO2 emissions and can travel at least 70 miles (this applies to fully electric vehicles i.e. not Plug-in hybrids from now on)
Plug-in Van Grant (N1/Light Commercial Vehicles)
The grant was previously limited to:
- 35% of the purchase price up to £3,000 for small vans < 2.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight (t GVW)
- 35% of the purchase price up to £6,000 for large vans 2.5-3.5t GVW
The grant has now been changed to:
- 35% of the purchase price up to £2,500 for small vans < 2.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight (t GVW)
- 35% of the purchase price up to £5,000 for large vans 2.5-3.5t GVW
In terms of what this means for existing and future orders if your order was placed with us and submitted in the relevant portal before 07:00 today, the previous grant criteria will apply.
If you have a quotation or rate book that includes any previously eligible vehicle and was created before today, this will need to be requoted with the new criteria and eligibility checked.
Our JCT600 systems and databases have all been updated with the new grant criteria. This will ensure all quotations; driver portals and rate books are now correct. The guidance on the gov.uk website is being updated to reflect the new grant rates and eligibility criteria. A revised list of vehicles that are now eligible for the grants will be available yesterday (Wednesday 15 December 2021) at https://www.gov.uk/plug-in-car-van-grants/eligibility.