10 June 2025
Like many other organisations, at EVA England we will be scrutinising the detail of tomorrow’s spending review, looking for measures that support our sector – the people that ultimately matter most in the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) – the drivers.
With over 9 in 10 electric car drivers never looking back, and with increasing numbers of customers buying these vehicles (last month nearly 22% of new car sales were electric), more and more people are recognising the attractiveness of these cars. They are more convenient, often cheaper to run, great cars to drive, and more accessible.
However, if you talk to drivers, who are at the sharp end of the transition, there are still challenges, and if we are to keep up this level of momentum these need tackling now. Tomorrow’s spending review is an opportunity to acknowledge and act on them.
The upfront cost of buying an EV is still more expensive than buying an equivalent petrol or diesel car. Salary sacrifice schemes and favourable benefit-in-kind rates for electric cars can bring those costs down to an affordable level for consumers, and it is vital that they are continued beyond the next five-year period. It is also vital that the decision to apply a luxury car tax to EVs at the same price point as is applied to petrol and diesel cars – creating a disproportionate burden on EV driving – is reversed.
But most importantly, we need to make sure that households of all incomes can access this market. Driver-led discussions overwhelmingly support the idea of schemes that strengthen the used electric car market, and promote production and sale of lower cost new EVs. Promotion of lower cost leasing schemes, second-hand loan schemes or instruments that stabilise the volatile prices of second hand EVs can all help achieve this. We need to start seeing recognition from Government of the need for such action.
Alongside upfront cost, availability of charging infrastructure and the high cost of public charging remain the biggest perceived barriers for those looking to make the switch to electric.
We now have over 80,000 public chargepoints in the UK (compared to around 11,000 petrol pumps). Government’s existing £1.5bn infrastructure funds remain critical to supporting rollout of this charging where it is most needed, and we want to see accelerated progress on them. For those without driveways, workplace charging is often a cheap and convenient way of re-fuelling their car. However, too few workplaces offer it. We want to see the lesser-known workplace charging fund rolling out chargepoints across public sector sites such as the NHS and schools, and a commitment to make it more attractive to companies.
And we need more urgent action to bring down the costs of public charging. We cannot continue to drift into a world where those without driveways may need to charge at rates sometimes ten times higher than those with driveways. Bringing the VAT rate of public charging in line with domestic charging, ensuring that electricity reforms put the EV consumer at their centre, and promoting the roll out of technologies that allow drivers to access their home energy tariffs such as cross pavement solutions, are all paramount.
As we continue to encourage mass market uptake of electric cars, we need to show that they can and will work for everyone – and we need Government support to do that.
This blog post was originally released as an early-access feature for EVA England members, to give them a deeper look into current issues shaping EV policy, before being published on Fleet World.
To gain early access to insights like this, you can support EVA England by becoming a member today.