The UK government will not reinstate a grant for the purchase of new plug-in hybrid vehicles, Jesse Norman, Minister of State for the Department for Transport, has told Autocar. The grant was modified in October last year, with only electric vehicles qualifying for a £3500 subsidy. Previously, the subsidies for hybrid and electric vehicles ranged from £2500 to £4500, depending on the model’s zero-emissions range. “We have to spend the tax payers’ money in a way that reflects the changing market,” said Norman. “The evidence was very clear: owners of plug-in hybrids were not plugging them in, negating the environmental benefits and undermining the incentives. “Instead, our focus is very much on pushing battery electric vehicles. It is where we have to get to and where we can see the biggest benefits. If I look at the electric bicycle industry and how that has taken off and been opened up then I see great opportunity. Today you can buy an electric bike at Aldi for £500 – and that wasn’t the case a few years ago. “I expect the prices of electric cars to come down dramatically in the same way and I’m not prepared to spend tax payers’ money incentivising technology that doesn’t reflect this changing market.” Manufacturers of plug-in hybrid vehicles and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) had vigorously campaigned for an incentive to be reintroduced, saying its withdrawal had damaged the transition to low emission vehicles. Last month sales of plug-in hybrids dropped 34 per cent to 1922 units, compared with 2929 last April when the incentive was still in place. While supply issues of the latest plug-in hybrids have been identified as one reason for this, SMMT chief Mike Hawes said the figures were also “evidence of the consequences of prematurely removing upfront purchase incentives before the market is ready.” Mitsubishi, maker of the best-selling Outlander PHEV presented evidence suggesting that UK owners of the car cover half their average weekly mileage in electric mode, substantially lessening the model’s environmental impact. Although Norman didn’t confirm if the government’s decision had been based on data from Holland, which indicated that many plug-in hybrid cars weren’t being charged, when asked about Mitsubishi’s UK-specific data he added: “I am not prepared to look back and make retrospective changes that undermine the benefits full battery-electric vehicles can bring.” Reports suggest the German government is on the cusp of raising its grant for full electric cars to €4000 (£3400) – a figure which must be matched by the selling manufacturer – on cars costing less than €30,000
Origin: Exclusive: Government won’t reinstate plug-in hybrid grants
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Mitsubishi calls for plug-in hybrid grant to be reinstated
Mitsubishi is leading calls for the UK government to revive its axed financial incentive scheme for buyers of plug-in hybrid vehicles. The Japanese car maker says that UK owners of its Outlander PHEV hybrid SUV cover half their average weekly mileage in electric mode, substantially lessening the model’s environmental impact. The grant in question, axed in October last year, enhanced the appeal of hybrid vehicles by offering buyers a £2500 – £4500 subsidy depending on the model’s zero-emissions range. According to a survey commissioned by Mitsubishi but conducted independently, over two thirds of Outlander PHEV owners charge their vehicle daily, with 90% charging at least 2-3 times per week. Mitsubishi says the results of this survey oppose the notion that PHEVs are rarely plugged in, and are purchased as a means of paying reduced benefit-in-kind tax. The vast majority of Outlander PHEVs are charged at owners’ homes, with only 23% of drivers relying on public charge points, which Mitsubishi says “refutes the misconception that PHEVs are preventing electric vehicles from accessing charging units”. Mitsubishi says 25% of UK Outlander PHEV owners would consider a pure electric vehicle as their next purchase – implying that incentivising sales of hybrids could help the government in its mission to end the sale of conventionally fuelled vehicles by 2040. The company’s appeal comes days after it was revealed that UK sales of plug-in hybrids fell by 34.3% in April – a direct result of the government’s abolition of financial incentives for anything but pure-electric vehicles. The Outlander PHEV is the UK’s biggest-selling plug-in hybrid, with an estimated 45,000 currently on the
Origin: Mitsubishi calls for plug-in hybrid grant to be reinstated
Next-gen Porsche Boxster, Cayman may get a plug-in hybrid variant
The Porsche 718 Cayman GTSPorsche Porsche’s plans to electrify the Boxster and Cayman may also include offering a plug-in hybrid version to be sold alongside gasoline versions. According to Autocar, the German automaker hasn’t decided on whether the electrified sports cars will be a regular or plug-in hybrid, but Porsche boss Oliver Blume says they’re working on it. We have prototypes of the 718 running in electric now, and a hybrid prototype is being built, he said. If you look to the next generation of those cars, it’s possible, although not clear whether it would be plug-in hybrid or hybrid. Porsche has been mulling over the idea of an electric sports car since 2011, when it built a few prototypes of the Boxster and Cayman as an EV. Furthermore, the Boxster E-volution concept from 2017 actually managed to beat the current 718’s zero-to-100 km/h sprint time thanks to a 38 kWh battery, which also lended to a 190-kilometre range. The 718 Boxster and Cayman EVs would be built on Porsche’s Premium Performance Electric (PPE) platform that will also be used on the Taycan, and is expected to have a range of up to 300 kilometres. Porsche says this is currently the absolute limit of the battery technology. A hybrid-ized 718 would employ the same hybrid systems currently used in the 992-series 911, just adapted for the smaller four-cylinder engines. The strategy will be a similar one used by the Macan — the EV will utilize the PPE platform, while the hybrid versions will remain on the MLB platform. Solid state batteries are expected to arrive in 2025, changing the landscape of EVs completely with up to 50 per cent more
Origin: Next-gen Porsche Boxster, Cayman may get a plug-in hybrid variant
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