Rachel Reeves told to introduce one EV rule as | Tech News

Rachel Reeves has been told to introduce one easy rule change to dramatically increase electric car demand within the UK after her new pay-per-mile system was confirmed. At the Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves introduced a new 3p pay-per-mile charge for electric vehicles, which is able to come into impact in 2028. 

The new change has sparked concern that demand for electric fashions might take a hit, with estimates from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimating it may lead to 440,000 fewer EVs on the street. Matt Galvin, Managing Director of Polestar UK, has as an alternative known as on the Chancellor to decrease charges for secondhand EVs so as to spark a surge of curiosity. 

Speaking completely to Express.co.uk, Matt mentioned: There’s one massive one truly, and it is a massive missed alternative, a subsidy for pre-owned or used electric vehicles. 

“If we are talking about price being a barrier to EV adoption, then there’s no better way right now to get into a three-year-old electric car. They are at a price parity in most places now with their petrol or diesel counterparts, and that gives people the ideal opportunity to try an electric car and realise it can work without the hefty price tag of a new car. 

“This happened in the Netherlands about a year or two ago, the Dutch Government put subsidies on used EVs and it worked really, really well.”

Under the Dutch national subsidy scheme (SEPP), new EVs acquired a subsidy of €2,950 (£2,585), whereas patrons of second-hand electric fashions acquired €2,000 (£1,753). However, the Dutch SEPP scheme got here to an finish in 2025 with no incentives now in place for EV house owners. 

Second-hand EV demand is already on the up, with knowledge from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) exhibiting used battery electric model gross sales have been had elevated 44.4% to 80,614 items. Analysis reveals that one in 25 patrons made the change to electric fashions, with EVs now having fun with a report market share of 4%. 

As effectively as serving to to increase gross sales, Matt has steered that price reductions might have helped to change the stigma round second-hand EVs on {the marketplace}.

Matt added: “That’s a actually massive missed alternative that might and ought to be carried out and also will then shore up the used car market. 

“There’s been lot of unfavourable publicity across the residual worth place of electric vehicles as a result of they’ve misplaced a lot worth within the first few years as people dont need them as used vehicles, This is a great manner to deal with two points.”