Government Announces Grant Support for Electric Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles

The Office of Zero Emission vehicles (OZEV) has today announced a new grant scheme, providing targeted funding specifically for Electric Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles (e-WAVs).

Part of a raft of changes to the Plug-In Car Grant (PiCG) scheme, which has seen the closure of grant support for standard electric vehicles, funding will now be allocated towards extending Plug-in Grants to boost sales of plug-in taxis, vans, trucks, motorcycles, and wheelchair accessible vehicles, as announced in the Autumn Statement. 

The PiCG scheme has succeeded in creating a mature market for ultra-low emission vehicles, helping to increase the sales of fully electric cars from less than 1,000 in 2011 to almost 100,000 in the first five months of 2022 alone.

Battery and hybrid electric vehicles now make up more than half of all new cars sold and fully electric car sales have risen by 70% in the last year, representing one in six new cars joining UK roads.

However, as we discuss in our previous article, the availability and take-up of electric Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles has not seen the same growth, due to technical limitations, legislative obstacles and high pricing.

Whether this additional support will be enough to prompt a faster take-up of e-WAVs remains to be seen.