Grant’s Golden Ticket: Only a Quarter of EV Models Qualify for UK Subsidy

The UK’s electric car subsidy is acting as a “golden ticket” for a select group of vehicles, with strict eligibility rules meaning only about a quarter of the battery EV models on sale can benefit. This targeted approach is having a profound impact, concentrating the recent sales boom in a specific corner of the market.
The grant, worth up to £3,750, is not an open invitation. The first major hurdle is the price cap, which excludes any vehicle costing more than £37,000. This immediately removes all premium and many long-range EV models from contention, focusing the incentive on more mainstream and compact cars.
The second, more subtle, rule relates to emissions during the manufacturing process. This clause has the practical effect of blocking many newer Chinese brands from qualifying for the grant, even if their vehicles fall under the price cap. This provides a significant advantage to established European and Japanese manufacturers like Citroën, Nissan, and Vauxhall, whose models are among the beneficiaries.
This “golden ticket” system means that the record-breaking sales figures seen in September are not evenly distributed across the market. Instead, they represent a massive surge in demand for a relatively small pool of eligible models. This has been a huge boon for the brands that hold a ticket, but a frustration for those left on the outside.
This policy choice reveals a strategy that is as much about shaping the industrial landscape as it is about boosting overall EV numbers. By directing taxpayer funds to a specific segment, the government is actively picking winners and losers in the UK’s increasingly competitive electric car market.