What is the Electric Vehicle Homecharge scheme?
The U.K., through the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles, has put together an electric vehicle homecharge scheme for EV drivers to be able to afford the up front costs of installing a charge point.
The voucher based scheme consists of a grant available to United Kingdom residents to afford 75% of the cost of getting a home charger and its’ installation. It also has a cap of £350 per installation for one charger.
This government grant, also known as the OLEV grant (OLEV, or Office for Low Emission Vehicles, is the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles old name) is dedicated specifically to customers with available off street parking, such as garages and driveways, with eligible electric vehicles and with an installation form completed.
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How does it work?
To qualify a person needs to provide evidence that they own, are leasing or have ordered one of the eligible electric vehicles. These are ultra-low emission vehicles, some of them who are also available to buy through the plug in vehicle grant. A person is allowed to apply for financial support to afford the cost of purchase and installation of two charge points if they have two eligible vehicles.
A customer must contact one of OZEV’s approved installers. Then, the installer is responsible for checking that the vehicle and charge point in question qualify for the grant. In case they are, then the installer will make the application in regards of the customer. The customer cannot apply for the grant funding personally.
The customer will only be billed by the installer the price of the charger installation after the grant’s reduction has been applied, and the installer will be paid the rest of the amount within 30 days of the installation being completed.
Who can apply for it?
Besides being able to prove that they are the primary user and have access and will be using an eligible electric vehicle for at least six months, to qualify customers must be residents at a domestic property with dedicated off street parking.
The charge point the customer wishes to have installed must also be one from an approved list by OZEV. The installer carrying out the services must also be approved by local authorities.
The homecharge scheme EVHS provides should not be confused with the workplace charging scheme. Businesses, public sector organisations, apartment buildings and other entities of this sort don’t qualify, therefore they cannot apply for the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme, as there are separate schemes for those groups.
Further information can be found on OLEV’s website.
Why is the electric vehicle homecharge scheme important?
Electric vehicles, are the future since they are one of the best ways to combat climate change. Governments all around the world are urging their citizens to take action and reduce their personal carbon footprint and the country’s as well.
As the transposition industry is one of the main producers of fossil fuels to the atmosphere, the adoption of electric cars has become notoriously important. This is true has most electric cars produce zero emissions of toxic gases. Most electric car owners as well as future ones claim that a major block for this is the lack of available electric vehicle charging infrastructure. OLEV’s EVHS grant, the scheme, is working towards fixing it.
Through the grant, citizens have an easier time affording the cost of purchasing and installing a home charge point. This ultimately will reduce the amount of people who need public charging stations and gets rid of charging anxiety around electric vehicles, facilitation their adoption.
