The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has called on the Government to rethink its decision to cut the plug-in car grant by £1,000.
The Government slashed the plug-in car grant by 40%, from £2,500 to £1,500 and also changed the vehicle eligibility criteria in December 2021.
The SMMT believes these changes, along with plans to end the electric charge point grant for home owners from April 2022, put the Government’s ambition to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 at risk despite record electric car sales in 2021.
Plug-in cars made up nearly a fifth (18.5%) of the 1.65 million new cars registered in 2021, with the overall market only 1% up on 2020 due to the impact of Covid-19 and the ongoing global shortages of computer chips.
Mike Hawes, Chief Executive of the SMMT, said: "The biggest obstacle to our shared net zero ambitions is not product availability but cost and charging infrastructure.
"Recent cuts to incentives and home charging grants should be reversed and we need to boost the roll out of public on-street charging with mandated targets, providing every driver, wherever they live, with the assurance they can charge where they want and when they want."
