Electric Car Grant portal opens for dealers and OEMs

An online portal for the Electric Car Grant is being launched and managed by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) for car brands and franchised dealerships to use when customers are buying qualifying new electric cars.

The Department for Transport has now published guidance on how to use the portal to record eligible EV sales, and points out to OEMs and franchised dealers that all claims must be verified before grants are paid out.

It is also clear that the grant should be in addition to any discount that the manufacturer offers, not substituting it, and it is "available to all private individuals and businesses buying or leasing an eligible vehicle at the point of purchase directly from the dealership or manufacturer".

Manufacturers can now submit their electric cars which have an recommended retail price below £37,000 to the DfT for inclusion in the scheme, which was announced by the Department of Transport as a step to incentivis UK motorists into zero emission cars, which it wants to take an 80% share of the new car market by 2030.

To secure the grant, an order should be started as soon as a contract has been entered into with the customer. In addition, the order must be successfully saved onto the portal before a vehicle is registered with DVLA.

And in recognition of the lead times for some new vehicles, the guidance notes that for a grant to be secured on an order, the vehicle must be registered and delivered to the customer within nine months of the date the order is placed.

Its guidance to dealerships is that the Electric Car Grant amount should be deducted from the purchase price. The purchase price means the actual price that would be paid by the customer without the grant, not the recommended retail price. The purchase price should include any industry discount offered by the manufacturer and represent the price the consumer would have paid without the ECG.

Audits to ensure compliance with the scheme are likely during its duration, and it points out that invoices clearly showing the purchase price minus the grant must be available and would be requested during an audit process.

Only dealers and manufacturers need to access the portal directly. Consumers will pay the discounted price automatically and do not have to go through a separate application process.

Grants will be paid in monthly batches to the manufacturers or licensed distributors, and it is then their responsibility to arrange payment to individual dealers.

Retrospective claims, in exceptional circumstances for a vehicle that has been registered, will be limited to one per dealership.

It also highlights that errors in orders submitted to the portal may result in no grant funding being disbursed for an order.

Vehicles that qualify for the Electric Car Grant

Eligible electric cars musr must be priced at or below £37,000 RRP, a figure which includes VAT, mandatory extras including delivery charges and any non-standard option fitted by the manufacturer or dealer which will affect the capacity of the battery, maximum net power or drivetrain configuration.

Where a product line is offered with multiple powertrain options, such as different-sized batteries and two-wheel drive and all-wheel drive variants, eligibility will be based on the RRP for the lowest priced variant of each powertrain variant.

The example given by the DVLA is where a vehicle model has a 50Kwh battery option priced at £35,000-£40,000 and a 60Kwh battery option priced at £40,000-£45,000, all of the 50Kwh battery variants will be eligible, and none of the 60Kwh battery variants will be eligible.

The RRP does not include extended warranty or insurance products, modifications for disabled users, nor the first registration fee or first licence.

It also does not include non-standard options which do not impact the battery capacity or powertrain. So certain upsells, for metallic paint for example, will not impact eligibility.

A list of new electric cars that have passed the eligibility application will be maintained and published by the DfT.

• Access the full guidance for dealers and OEMs on the Electric Car Grant here