9:54 am, September 5, 2013
Ministers are set to scrap the taxpayer-funded £5,000 grants, which were introduced to boost electric car sales.
According to the Daily Mail, the subsidies will now be reduced and eventually scrapped completely.
The decision was made after experts found the incentive did little to help the environment and failed to make the impact they initially thought it would.
They said the subsidy was allowing rich families to buy a cheap second car.
A scathing report, published by the Commons Transport Select Committee last September, stated: ‘The government appears to have spent £11m on providing infrastructure that currently benefits only a handful of vehicle owners.’
The subsidies were introduced two years ago in a bid to encourage more drivers into alternatively-fuelled vehicles and a network of more than 1,600 public charging points have been installed across the country.
However, demand for electric cars remained relatively low because the majority of families found them too expensive.
According to the Daily Mail, the Transport Research Laboratory believes the grant plays an ‘important role’ in nine out of 10 electric vehicle sales.
Ministers have committed £500m between 2015 and 2020 in order to support the development of electric and green vehicles.
