Comment: Plug-In Car Grant Plug Pulled?

BRISTOL, UNITED KINGDOM – June 14, 2010: Dr Ben Lane of WhatGreenCar.com considers what the new Lib-Con Agreement means for the electric car revolution...

Back in February, I wrote in GreenFleet magazine that the Car Scrappage Scheme had shown (once again) the purchase incentive to be a highly efficient method of accelerating market change – one that could be better used in the UK to further incentivise sales of lower carbon cars. At the risk of repeating myself, the evidence is that car purchase incentives result in a greater market shift than can be achieved by incentivising circulation taxes (such as ‘road tax’) to the same degree.

I also proposed that the design and financing of a new carbon-based car purchase incentive should be our next ‘green car challenge’ – building on (I imagined) the success of the �5,000 Plug-in Car Grant which was announced by the previous government to promote the sales of electric cars from 2011.

So, with the new administration in place, it was with optimism that I read ‘The Coalition: our programme for government’, which includes a programme of measures to “make the transport sector greener and more sustainable”. Not only does the document confirm the establishment of a ‘smart’ grid and roll-out of smart meters, is also mandates the implementation of a "national recharging network for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles".

Choosing to place the development of a new recharging network in legislation is a highly significant decision – one that underlines the key role to be played by electric vehicles within the Coalition’s plans for a low carbon economy. Indeed, as far as I am aware, it is the first time that legislation will be used to expand the recharging network across the UK.

As part of an integrated strategy, the roll out of a national recharging network perfectly complements the already announced Plug-in Car Grants – as together these two measures address head-on the two greatest consumer barriers to electric vehicles: their higher purchase price and shorter driving range. Working in parallel, these measures would do a great deal to ‘level the playing field’ and give electric cars a fighting chance of market success.

But wait – cue scratching sound of needle being dragged off a vinyl record – there is one obvious omission in the new Agreement – the Plug-in Car Grant doesn’t get a mention. It’s just not there. Although the sentiment remains to support the electric car, one of the two key incentives that could make it all work seems to have gone. While I hope to be proved wrong, the Agreement may signal the scrapping of the grant in June’s emergency (money saving) Budget.

I am reminded of Phil Robinsons’s film ‘Field of Dreams’ in which the lead character hears voices telling him ‘they will come’. Interpreting the words as a command to build a baseball diamond, he is rewarded by a visitation from the famous Chicago Black Sox team followed by the game’s adoring fans. And what of electric cars? Will they come? My fear is that, without the grants in place, on such an uneven playing field, they won’t.