Plug-in van grant extended to 2026: what is it and how does it work?

Plug-in grants were launched as a key part of the country’s goal for every new van on British roads to be electric by 2050, in turn enabling the target of net zero carbon by 2050 for the country as a whole.

Following the axing of the plug-in car grant in June 2022, the Government had previously announced that £300million of investment would be refocused towards the plug-in van grant, along with support for zero-emission motorcycles, trucks and wheelchair-accessible vehicles. 

Here’s everything you need to know about the plug-in van grant…

Contrary to what the name suggests, the plug-in van grant doesn’t apply to all vans with a plug. In order to qualify for the subsidy, a van must be capable of covering at least 60 miles in zero-emission mode and must emit less than 50g/km of CO2 according to manufacturer-stated figures based on the official tests.

Technically, a plug-in hybrid van meeting these criteria would be eligible for the grant, but as no such vehicle is currently available on the market, the grant is effectively limited to fully electric vans.

The value of the plug-in van grant varies according to the size of the van it’s being applied to. Eligible vans with a gross vehicle weight (GVW) of less than 2.5 tonnes can receive as much as 35 per cent of the purchase price, up to a maximum sum of £2,500.