Households which don’t have a driveway can get a boost worth £500 from April, up from the previous £350.
The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) has extended its system of grants for one more year, until March 2027.
The grants are essentially free handouts to cover the cost of installing electric vehicle charge points at homes across the UK, in a bid to boost takeup of electric vehicles and help drivers meet the cost of switching to an EV.
Electric vehicle charge point grants for renters and flat owners will be increased from £350 to £500 from April 1 and the scheme has been extended until March 2027.
There are two different grants available; one for those who don’t have driveways and one for those who do.
For the first, you must own or rent in a flat and have private off-street parking in order to qualify for the grant. This would include driveways, but also private car parking if you had permission to install in it.
Another grant, for EV points for on-street parking, has also been boosted to £500 and extended to March.
In order to qualify for this you would need to only have on-street parking and install a ‘cross-pavement solution’ such as a charging gully. The OZEV said. "You would not be allowed to get this grant if you have a driveway."
It adds: "Electric vehicle chargepoint grant for households with on-street parking.
"This grant provides up to £350 towards the cost of installing a chargepoint at your property.
"You must:
live in a property which you own or rent
be installing a cross-pavement solution, for example a charging gully
only have on-street parking."
At the same time, a consultation is currently underway exploring the introduction of new rules for leaseholders to install charge points in car parks.
Should they be put in place following a consultation period, they will make it mandatory for leaseholders to install EV charge points in covered car parks. Planning permission rules would also be scrapped on pavement charging points, which the Government says will save drivers £250 in application fees, while allowing EV owners to access lower, standard domestic electricity prices.
The changes will give more drivers access to standard household electricity rates instead of having to use more expensive public chargers. Relying on a cheap EV tariff at home instead would make running an EV cost 2p per mile, or ‘the equivalent of London to Birmingham for £2.50’, the Department for Transport said.
Much of the public charger growth has been seen outside of London, with the number of devices installed outside of the capital growing by 24.3%, compared to 21.7% within it.
In a Department for Transport consultation on the plans released in November, the government said its plan to build 'cross pavement' EV charging would open up the cheap 2p rates to more homes and drivers.
