31 July 2025
As EVA England we must take some credit for these as they include measures to support drivers with upfront purchase costs and cross pavement technologies, and measures to allow for installation of EV charging signage. These are challenges that we have been raising and seeking resolution on in our discussions with Government for many months, based on evidence provided by our members.
But as with any big announcement, there is a lot of public speculation and debate on what these measures mean and whether they are worth it. And for us there are still gaps (used cars?) that we want to see closed as well.
So, is this current set of announcements worth it? Ultimately, yes!
Why is that? And what do I need to know as a driver? There is a lot to unpack, but our two-part explainer below attempts to do that.
The first announcement off the blocks was a significant £63m package to boost EV charging infrastructure – including:
What does the £25m cross pavement fund do, and how will I benefit as a driver?
As EVA England, we strongly welcomed the launch of this fund. We have consistently been asking for more support to be given to cross pavement technologies to make sure that they are an integral part of the charging mix. They allow those drivers without driveways, who can occasionally park outside their house, to access the cheaper charging rates those with driveways can. However, the current process for getting one is opaque, costly and lengthy. Drivers report paying up to £3,000 and waiting up to 15 months for their installation, which isn’t particularly acceptable.
The £25m will be allocated to local authorities through the Local EV Infrastructure Programme (LEVI) and for the first time there will be dedicated funding to encourage local authorities to include cross pavement charging solutions in their EV infrastructure plans. This is significant, as there is now a financial incentive for local authorities to look at this as a serious charging option, hopefully encouraging more tentative or sceptical authorities to act.
The funding is for installation of the cross pavement technology itself (ie the kit that is installed outside the householder’s property boundary). At the moment, only gullies are mentioned in the guidance but ideally this will open up to other relevant technologies as they are rolled out and where they suit driver’s needs better.
Residents will still need to fund the chargepoint that has to be installed on their property in parallel, and deal with any relevant planning permissions around that (should permitted development rights be needed because the chargepoint is close to the pavement/street once installed on the householder’s property) – although we are working hard to get the need for those planning permissions removed and are hopeful we will see that done soon (see our note on the Planning and Infrastructure Bill).
Guidance for local authorities on how to access and deliver the fund is being developed, and more detail will come in due course. We are working up a parallel Q&A for residents to complement that guidance.
But all this should ultimately go a long way to reducing the cost to drivers of applying for and installing these solutions, and reduce the time it takes to get approval for them, meaning more and more drivers can take advantage of cheaper charging rates and switch to electric.
Will the £8m funding for NHS fleets benefit staff as well as fleet drivers?
The £8m funding to electrify NHS fleets, as well as additional funding for business depots, is another really welcome move. Fleets setting an example and showing that electric driving works in a range of scenarios has always been a powerful way of getting drivers to think about purchasing electric for their own next vehicle. The £8m fund will be allocated to a number of NHS Trusts to support their plans for installing chargepoints for use by fleets across their sites. In case you missed it, the list of Trusts and how much funding each of them will receive be found here.
At EVA England we had asked for this greater focus on public sector fleets, but also for more direct support to install chargepoints at NHS and other public sector sites so that staff can benefit from the cheaper charging rates that workplace charging can bring. Workplace chargers, often slower and therefore cheaper 7-22 kW AC chargers, can be another important route for bringing charging costs down for those who do not have driveways.
The Government’s workplace charging scheme provides £350 off the cost of a chargepoint socket, for up to 40 sockets per site for all businesses, charity and public sector authorities. However, take up of the scheme by business is not has high as it might be. In contrast, a dedicated workplace charging fund for schools (where sites benefit from a grant of £2500 per chargepoint socket installed up to 40 sockets per site) has seen more significant uptake.
We have therefore been pressing for extension of the schools fund to other public sector sites, such as NHS sites. This latest announcement unfortunately does not do that – yet – as the parameters for the workplace charging fund for this financial year have already been set. However, we will continue our discussions with Government to ensure that this is considered as they review the parameters of the fund for the next financial year.
Will I start to see more signs advertising EV chargepoints?
Making it easier to put in place EV chargepoint signage is paramount and we welcome the move to allow EV charging hubs to be signposted from major A roads. Our surveys show that for those who haven’t yet transition to EVs then range anxiety, and understanding whether there are enough chargepoints available, is still a key barrier. A greater level of EV charging signage will help to tackle this. And because many of the issues preventing a greater level of EV charging sign roll-out are to do with traffic sign regulations and planning processes, resolving these for major EV charging hubs is a really good first step.
However, it must be just that – a first step. For example, why only from major A roads? Many charging hubs are near to motorways. And what about other chargepoints? Particularly the slower and cheaper destination chargers and residential chargers? Last week’s announcement will hopefully demonstrate the case for removing the planning barriers that prevent a wider, much needed, roll-out of EV signage. And as a drivers organisation we will need to continue pressing on that.
The announcement that has created the most public discussion is the £650m that Government has made available for a renewed electric car grant – meaning that drivers buying new fully battery electric vehicles with a recommended retail price of under £37,000 can get either £3,750 or £1,500 off the upfront cost of the vehicle.
Why is this important?
66% of drivers believe that upfront cost is one of the biggest barriers to switching to electric. As EVA England, we have therefore consistently campaigned for measures from the Government that help bring down the upfront costs of buying an electric car, and therefore, this fund, targeting new car sales, is really important.
The used car market is, however, equally important. It is where the majority of drivers purchase their next vehicle, and where, with only two in five EV models under £20 000, there is a long way to go to make second hand EVs affordable for many households.
And there is an important link between the new and used vehicle markets, with opposing, and strong views on the nature of that link – whether increasing sales on the new car market drives a more cost competitive second hand market, or whether supporting a strong used car market has an upward effect on a more cost competitive new car market. BVRLA (the vehicle rental and licensing trade body) are clear that there is still significant volatility in prices in the used car market, with more supply of vehicles than there is demand, and rapid depreciation on pricing pushing up financing costs across the new car market.
And so we join them in continuing to ask for parallel support for the second-hand EV market to stabilise and bring overall prices of electric vehicles down for drivers.
But these new car discounts are punchy and not to be knocked at. They will hopefully provide a much needed level of stability to the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate (which sets targets for new EV sales for manufacturers to meet). Manufacturers have consistently raised the need for more support to attract increasing numbers of customers to allow them to achieve those targets, and Government has answered that call. Plus, with the grants only applying to fully battery electric cars, they will also shift consumer buying focus back to full electric and away from hybrids.
We will be watching closely whether these measures do start to drive car buyers towards electric, and the impact of these grants on the used car market.
What will my discount be, and how do I get hold of it?
Which level of discount you get (£3,750 or £1,500) depends on the model of battery electric vehicle you are buying.
The process around deciding that is the same as for the previous plug-in car grant: manufacturers submit applications to Government to apply for their vehicles to be registered as compliant with the criteria for the grant, and these applications are assessed by Department for Transport and the Vehicle Certification Agency. Once Government has confirmed a vehicle is eligible, it is recorded on a grant portal, which all dealers can access and through which dealers submit claims for the grant once they have sold a vehicle.
So as a driver, you simply receive your discount from the dealer at the point of sale, and they do the paperwork to claim the grant back for their books.
The grant portal will go live on 11 August, and dealers can start claiming the grant discount from that point. Some, feeling confident that their cars will be eligible for the grant, are already offering discounts to buyers; others will wait for confirmation from the Government on the eligibility of their cars.
What is different about this process are the criteria that decide whether a car model is eligible for the grant or not, and which level of grant. That is for manufacturers to get their heads around and is mostly based on existing vehicle certification and international standards.
DfT have issued some pretty comprehensive guidance on that – and will be talking manufacturers through it: How to apply for vehicle eligibility for the Electric Car Grant – GOV.UK
But a brief summary is:
As EVA England, we feel we’re making real headway in raising awareness of both the benefits of buying and owning electric, and the challenges in making the system work for all drivers, whether you have a driveway or not, whatever your household income, and whether you have a disability or not.
It is heartening to see some of our work starting to get through to the policy and decision makers, but the more support and data we get from drivers, the stronger the level of influence we can have.
Our annual Survey will launch in August, along with encouraging offers to persuade more drivers to become members of EVA England. We want to reach as many drivers as possible, and will value your help promoting the survey and our work. Watch this space!