Electric car charging rules 'unfair' with calls to end 'injustice'

04 March 2024 , 15:47

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The price difference between home and public charging is significant (Image: Getty Images)

Electric car drivers have called for "unnecessary and unfair" VAT rates to be slashed over a charging "injustice".

They say the current rules represent a 'charging injustice'. Experts want the government to make changes in the Budget and Spring Statement on March 6, which will be delivered by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt. Quentin Willson, motoring journalist and founder of FairCharge, said: "If the Government is serious about wider EV adoption, they must revisit this out-of-date VAT legislation - written in the early 1990s before the arrival of electric cars - and make it fit for purpose.

"The cost to the Treasury would be very small compared to the hundreds of billions spent supporting fuel duty, but the benefit to EV drivers without private parking and to urban air quality would be significant and remove this unnecessary barrier to EV adoption."

People who drive electric vehicles and can charge them at home only pay five per cent VAT on their energy bill, but 38 per cent of those without driveways have to use public chargers and pay the full VAT rate of 20 per cent, reports Birmingham Live. The price difference between home and public charging is now significant and acting as a barrier to EV adoption. Ian Plummer, commercial director at Auto Trader, supported the call, adding: "It is simply unfair that EV owners without driveways should have to pay more for the privilege of improving air quality.

"It's time for the Treasury to address this injustice and give electric vehicles the best chance of widespread adoption, rather than remaining the preserve of the wealthy."

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Dev Chana, MD of E. ON Drive Infrastructure, said charging people without a driveway four times more is "effectively a tax". He added: "A fairer system which charges the same rate of VAT wherever and whenever you charge your electric car would be a real consumer win during this cost of living crisis and would also help speed up EV adoption by taking away an unnecessary and unfair cost."

Rom Preston-Ellis