New £713M Electric Vehicle Support Package Announced
A Turning Point for UK EV Policy — But Is It Enough?
The UK government has unveiled a £713 million EV support package — its most ambitious incentive since the original plug-in grants. On paper, it’s a powerful blend of new car subsidies and infrastructure support designed to accelerate EV adoption. But does it go far enough, and who's really going to benefit?
What’s being offered
Up to £3,750 off new EVs under £37,000 at point of sale, scaled down for second-tier “greener” models.
£63 million for charging:
£25 million for “pavement gulley” chargers for homes without driveways.
£8 million for NHS fleet electrification.
Additional funding for street-side and depot chargers.
Open questions the government isn’t answering yet
1. Pavement “home charging” at scale?
£25 million to fund pavement gullies across hundreds of local authorities seems underwhelming. Will this fund just a handful of pilot schemes, or just a few hundred streets? And what about the 5–8x higher costs consumers already pay for street-side public lampost chargers compared to home electricity? Nothing seems to have been suggested to control or reduce this consumer cost.
2. Will buyers actually get the discounts?
UK EVs still average around £49,000, and most new EVs are over £40,000. That means many won’t even qualify — and dealerships might simply absorb the subsidy into their margins; we should remember that many manufacturers are already discounting new EVs heavily so this subsidy may simply get eaten up.
It seems that the Government is telling us that a £37,000 car is “basic”, but a £40,000 car is “Luxury” - which, I assume, means that a car priced between £37,001 and £39,999 is “normal”.
3. Eligibility complexity
Which models get £3,750 vs £1,500 isn’t clear. Is it green credentials, battery origin, or sustainable production methods? Until more granular detail is offered, nobody really knows what qualifies.
4. Expensive-car tax bites back
The removal of the £40k VED exemption from April 2025 adds an extra £2,125 over six years in the “luxury car supplement”. That hits the very consumers the subsidy might have helped, and it’s left untouched in this package.
The likely outcome for used EV pricing
New EVs becoming £1,500–£3,750 cheaper will inevitably drag down demand for 1–3-year-old used models, driving a small price drop in that market segment which would be great news for bargain hunters, not so much for trade-in values and end of lease residuals.
It pay have a positive effect on some vehicles however, for example, a used EV such as a Tesla Model Y which will not qualify for any new car subsidy and will also be charged the expensive vehicle supplement between years 2-6 of it’s life. These are popular cars which are likely to remain popular, these changes may actually help to stabilise their used values.
Giving more people access to cheap home charging tariffs cannot be a bad thing but do the Government measures go far enough?
In a nutshell…
It’s not quite as simple as the headlines suggest, let’s take a look at the key points.
Pros:
✔️ Affordability — Clear price cuts, easy to explain at purchase.
✔️ Innovation — Pavement chargers could solve a big problem, if they’re rolled out widely.
✔️ Fleet electrification — NHS and public fleets help normalise EVs.
Cons:
✖️ High-cost EVs excluded — Many mainstream EVs still fall into non-qualifying price bands.
✖️ Manufacturer / dealer behaviour unknown — Without transparency, who knows where the benefit will land?
✖️ Tax offsets remain — Curbside charging and new VED surcharges continue to punish EV adoption.
✖️ Limited reach — £25 million for pavement gullies to spread over hundreds of UK Local Authorities may not budge the needle.
In Summary
This is the biggest EV push in years, but it's also partial in key ways:
It does nothing to reduce the ongoing high cost of curbside/lamp-post charging, which remains 5-8x more expensive than home rates.
It ignores the £40k luxury-car tax, penalising many would-be EV buyers.
It avoids clarifying exactly which cars qualify — or how much buyers will truly save, versus what might be sucked back as manufacturer margin.
It appears to do little to stop dealerships from simply replacing some of their discounts with the subsidy.
The £713 million package is a solid step, filled with ambition and real investment. But it’s only part of the story. The true impact will be decided by how it’s rolled out, who benefits, and whether this solves — or sidesteps — the deeper affordability and infrastructure challenges.
This isn't a complete solution, but it could be a turning point... if the execution is transparent, fair, and well-funded across the board.