Plug-in Car Grant: Will it still be available for Model 3?

[Two9A]

So the Wikipedia page for the PICG states:

In December 2015, the Plug-in car grant was extended until March 2018, with additional funding of £400 million.

Now, the model 3 is slated for initial release (of high-end models to Tesla employees on the US West Coast) at the end of 2017... I seriously doubt the UK will see any 3's before the March 2018 date passes.

Is there a chance, do you think, of the PICG being extended again past 2018? Or are we just out of luck, and will be stuck paying full price for a 3?

 

[Big24fan]

That's a question I was wondering too. Let me know what u find out.

 

[PeteW]

I looked into this and it's looking unlikely...

"[The Office for Low Emission Vehicles] has said that the grant will be maintained under the new regime until March 2017 (contrary to the Government’s initial announcement of 2018), or until 40,000 sales of category 1 vehicles, and 45,000 combined sales of categories 2 and 3, with both totals including vehicles registered under the existing regime.

As of [Dec 2015] 23,000 claims had been submitted for category 1 vehicles and 28,000 for categories 2 and 3 – 51,000 in total, of which half were made in 2015 alone".

Source: http://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/fleet-industry-news/2016/01/10/plug-in-c...

So it looks very unlikely it'll still be around in 2018, unless the government extends it - and the tories have already shown they have no interest in environmental issues or electric cars.

 

[Road runner]

So assuming the $35,000 price tag holds for UK deliveries and assuming the current exchange rate (0.7) plus import tax, are we looking at a UK Model 3 base price of $35,000 * 0.7 = £24,500 // so including import tax can we expect the base model to start at ~£30,000 ?

 

[EV Guy]

It may be gone we just don't know. I think it certainly won't be around for PHEV's as air quality is going to be a major push going forward. Any fossil fuel burning car will see increased taxation.

 

[PeteW]

It may be gone we just don't know.

Having looked into it, the government guidance has been updated and is pretty clear - the grant ends no later than March 2017:

"5.3 Future review of grant levels
The grant will be maintained at the current levels until March 2017, or until a prescribed number of each type of vehicle have been sold, whichever is sooner."

Plug-in car grant eligibility guidance - GOV.UK

So that's a pretty conclusive 'no'.