UK Government “Electric Car Grant” aimed at tempting drivers to efficent cars

£5000 towards your nice new Nissan Leaf

The government has announced the cars that will be eligible for the electric car grant set to begin from January 1, 2011.

Potential buyers will be entitled to up to 25% off the price of any qualifying car with emissions below 75g/km, which can mean up to £5,000 off some models.

There are nine cars that will be initially available under the funding with three available to buy now and the remaining six arriving later in 2011 and 2012. All the cars currently on the list are electric powered vehicles.

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Cars on the list include the Nissan Leaf, which the manufacturer claims is the first real-world and affordable electric vehicle as well as the Citroen CZero and Peugeot iOn.

The Leaf is priced at £28,990 which means with the £5,000 discount applied will fall to £23,990. Other models like the CZero will only be leased by manufacturers. In this instance the incentive will also be available but as a deduction of the customers’ monthly fees

One of the biggest arguments against electric vehicles so far has been the lack of infrastructure for them. To try to solve this government has also announced a number of locations to receive funding for this to begin.

The Midlands, Greater Manchester, East of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland will share a £20m pot in order to install 4,000 charging points. These join London, Milton Keynes and North East England that will install 11,000 charging points by 2013.

Cars eligible for government grant

For more information on the grant see the Direct Gov website