Eligible electric vehicle (EV) drivers are being urged to apply for government grants to receive money off a home EV charger before it is too late.
Tomorrow (21 December) marks exactly 100 days until the UK government’s Electric Vehicle Chargepoint Grant (EVCG) closes for new applications on 31 March 2025. As of yet, no replacement or extension has been announced by the government.
The EVCG grants residential landlords, residents of flats (regardless of whether they rent or own their flat), and rental tenants in houses up to £350 towards the cost of installing a home EV charger. Owners and operators of residential carparks can also benefit under the scheme and are eligible for a single grant of up to £30,000 to support the development of EV charging infrastructure in a residential car park.
Until July of this year, the Office for Zero Emissions Vehicles (OZEV) has paid out £5.9 million in grants through the scheme, supporting the installation of 7,738 new chargepoints. The vast majority of installations took place in domestic properties, with flat owners and renters installing 4,501 chargepoints with £1.575 million in grants, landlords installing 1,089 EV chargers with £0.45 million, and residential car park owners receiving £3.85 million in grant money to add 2,148 chargepoints to residential car parks.
Lack of charging infrastructure is frequently cited as a major barrier to those wishing to make the switch to an electric car, with a recent survey from E.ON, one of the UK’s largest installers of chargepoints, finding that around half of prospective EV drivers are discouraged from making the switch due to a perceived lack of charging infrastructure.
Despite this fear, a recent report from the National Audit Office (NAO) has characterised the UK as being on track to meet the 2030 target of 300,000 public chargepoints on the network. As of July 2024, 64,632 EV chargepoints have been installed in the UK, in line with projections made by the OZEV. In fact, a survey from EV chargepoint mapping firm Zapmap found that over half of the UK’s EV drivers (61%) say that they feel public charging infrastructure has improved, and 51% use a public charger at least once per month, despite over 70% of EV drivers having an EV charger installed at home.
The EVCG follows in the footsteps of two now-defunct home chargepoint grants, the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS) and the Domestic Recharge Scheme (DRS). Together, the EVHS and DRS funded the installation of 380,555 domestic EV chargers across the UK.
Daniel Forsberg, marketing manager EVSE at chargepoint manufacturer CTEK, said: “With no extension or replacement for the grants announced to date, the countdown clock is ticking on applying for these valuable incentives.
“Whether you are a landlord, a flat owner, an employer or anyone else who could benefit, now is the time to talk to an OZEV-registered installer about what to install and where.”
