The government has announced it will extend a grant scheme to support the purchase of electric vans and trucks.
The Plug-in Van Grant and the Plug-in Truck Grant will continue until at least 2027, enabling thousands of businesses and drivers across the country to get discounts on electric vehicles.
The scheme offers a range of discounts, including up to £2,500 for small electric vans, £5,000 for large electric vans, £16,000 for small trucks, and £25,000 for large trucks. The government says that by switching to electric, businesses could save over £2,800 a year on fuel alone.
The extension to the Plug-in Van Grant is seen as a way to provide fleet operators with the certainty they need to plan their electric van purchases, and builds on the government's recent £30m investment to install over 3,000 new charge points at depots across the UK.
Commercial vehicle transport is responsible for more than a third of CO₂ emissions on UK roads, and the government hopes this support will help businesses make the transition to electric.
The government is also promoting wider EV adoption, in an effort to increase the 1.4 million EVs that are already on UK roads.
Latest statistics show that there are more than 83,800 public charging points currently available, with plans for over 100,000 more thanks to a £381m Local EV Infrastructure fund.
Electric vehicle sales, however, continue to track well below the targets as set out by the ZEV mandate. The Zero Emission Vehicle mandate requires manufacturers to have a 16% share of electric van sales in 2025, rising to 24% in 2026. These figures are up from the 10% requirement in 2024.
Despite high inflation and increasing economic uncertainty, van sales have continued at their usual pace. However, the sale of electric vans has lagged behind. The current year-to-date figures from the SMMT show that deliveries of BEVs rose by 72.6% to 2,442 in July, which is eight months of continuous growth. But BEVs represent just 8.8% of the overall market just over half of the required 16%.
