Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

Magnitio

@thevilla @debitcardmayhem

https://www.londonambulance.nhs.uk/2025/02/20/new-film-follows-london-ambulance-service-paramedics-as-electric-ambulance-goes-the-distance/

Martyn1981

More info / announcements from the Gov on the EV support package. This time explaining the £3,750 grant/discount.

Edit - Sorry, should have pointed out that this goes to the manufacturer, so should reduce costs for the buyer, but that's implicit not explicit.

Discount of up to £3,750 on electric cars set to slash costs for thousands

JKenH

Martyn1981 said:

More info / announcements from the Gov on the EV support package. This time explaining the £3,750 grant/discount.

Edit - Sorry, should have pointed out that this goes to the manufacturer, so should reduce costs for the buyer, but that's implicit not explicit.

Discount of up to £3,750 on electric cars set to slash costs for thousands

I suspect that the £3,750 will simply go towards offsetting the penalties manufacturers pay on their ICE car sales. It is unlikely to bring the price of a Dacia Spring down much from the £10k price delivery mileage cars are currently being offered at. It only applies to cars with a list price below £37,500 anyway.

New Electric Car Grant of up to £3,750 – but will it have ANY impact?

Unlike the previous PiCG, where buyers had to apply for the grant, it looks like the grant will go to the car makers to reduce the list price at the point of sale. But we really can’t see that working.

Car makers are already massively discounting EVs to get buyers to move into an EV, and it seems highly likely they will simply reduce the discounts they already offer on new EVs by the amount of grant they get.

Or are we being too cynical?

https://www.carsuk.net/new-electric-car-grant-of-up-to-3750-but-will-it-have-any-impact/

Edit: Government ministers and civil servants obviously don’t  have even a basic understanding of economics. The price at which something sells is determined in the market place; supply and demand. Remember what happened when the original EV grant scheme was canned - manufacturers simply adjusted their prices downwards.

michaels

Will it make sense for manufacturers to reduce any list prices between 37k and 40k down to 37k?

Personally I think it should only be available for vehicles that do not also benefit from the bik savings as these savings are what make EV depreciation so large and discourages private buyers.  This scheme should level the playing field not leave the discrepancy in place.

paul991

would of been better to give the money to scrap a petrol car when buying a new or used EV over 10 k that way the older petrol cars are being removed off the roads. The ex fleet cars being available to the used car market

Grumpy_chap

Hoenir said:

The last thing this Government can do michaels said:

Will it make sense for manufacturers to reduce any list prices between 37k and 40k down to 37k?

Personally I think it should only be available for vehicles that do not also benefit from the bik savings as these savings are what make EV depreciation so large and discourages private buyers.  This scheme should level the playing field not leave the discrepancy in place.

at the moment is fritter away taxpayers money.

Well, it seems as though they can.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn5kpkypxp6o

The earlier version of that BBC article before work was appalling.  The lady (Carolyn) was quoted as unable to get an EV charger because she had "single phase" electricity and the cost to upgrade was quoted at £20k.  That has now been amended to a "lower electricity supply" and the cost has fallen to £16.5k plus VAT.  Really quite poor that the first version was so poorly verified.

michaels said:

Personally I think it should only be available for vehicles that do not also benefit from the bik savings

Are there any EV's that do not benefit from the BIK savings?

michaels

Grumpy_chap said:

Hoenir said:

The last thing this Government can do michaels said:

Will it make sense for manufacturers to reduce any list prices between 37k and 40k down to 37k?

Personally I think it should only be available for vehicles that do not also benefit from the bik savings as these savings are what make EV depreciation so large and discourages private buyers.  This scheme should level the playing field not leave the discrepancy in place.

at the moment is fritter away taxpayers money.

Well, it seems as though they can.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn5kpkypxp6o

The earlier version of that BBC article before work was appalling.  The lady (Carolyn) was quoted as unable to get an EV charger because she had "single phase" electricity and the cost to upgrade was quoted at £20k.  That has now been amended to a "lower electricity supply" and the cost has fallen to £16.5k plus VAT.  Really quite poor that the first version was so poorly verified.

michaels said:

Personally I think it should only be available for vehicles that do not also benefit from the bik savings

Are there any EV's that do not benefit from the BIK savings?

As in if the vehicle is leased via a company to get the lower bik then the manufacturer should not also benefit from the grant.

QrizB

Stellantis were due to launch a range of hydrogen fuel cells vehicles this year.

Instead, they've canned the entire programme.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/07/stellantis-abandons-hydrogen-fuel-cell-development

From the article:

For some years now, detractors of battery electric vehicles have held up hydrogen as a clean fuel panacea. That sometimes refers to hydrogen combustion engines, but more often, it's hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles, or FCEVs. Both promise motoring with only water emitted from the vehicles' exhausts. It's just that hydrogen actually kinda sucks as a fuel, and automaker Stellantis announced today that it is ending the development of its light-, medium- and heavy-duty FCEVs, which were meant to go into production later this year.

More at the link.

Edit to add links to Stellantis press release on the subject:

https://www.stellantis.com/en/news/press-releases/2025/july/stellantis-discontinues-hydrogen-fuel-cell-technology-development-program

A little over a year ago they were expecting HFCVs to make up "up to 40%" of their commercial vehicle sales:

https://www.electrive.com/2024/04/30/stellantis-significantly-expands-fcev-production/

And it was only a year before *that* that Stellantis purchased a 1/3 share of the fuel cell manufacturer Symbio:

https://www.stellantis.com/en/news/press-releases/2023/may/stellantis-to-acquire-equal-stake-with-faurecia-and-michelin-in-symbio-a-leader-in-zero-emission-hydrogen-mobility

Martyn1981

Also this month, Honda has announced that it will be scaling back plans for its hydrogen fuel cell plant in Japan, and delaying the start of production to later than 2028.

Grumpy_chap

michaels said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Hoenir said:

The last thing this Government can do michaels said:

Will it make sense for manufacturers to reduce any list prices between 37k and 40k down to 37k?

Personally I think it should only be available for vehicles that do not also benefit from the bik savings as these savings are what make EV depreciation so large and discourages private buyers.  This scheme should level the playing field not leave the discrepancy in place.

at the moment is fritter away taxpayers money.

Well, it seems as though they can.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn5kpkypxp6o

The earlier version of that BBC article before work was appalling.  The lady (Carolyn) was quoted as unable to get an EV charger because she had "single phase" electricity and the cost to upgrade was quoted at £20k.  That has now been amended to a "lower electricity supply" and the cost has fallen to £16.5k plus VAT.  Really quite poor that the first version was so poorly verified.

michaels said:

Personally I think it should only be available for vehicles that do not also benefit from the bik savings

Are there any EV's that do not benefit from the BIK savings?

As in if the vehicle is leased via a company to get the lower bik then the manufacturer should not also benefit from the grant.

So that would treat vehicles purchased by a company different to those that are leased by a company.