It’s been a few weeks since the British government announced plans to offer taxpayer-funded discounts on certain electric cars in order to speed up their faltering adoption, and since then, there hasn’t been much in the way of clarity on which cars would qualify.
After a bit of a wait, though, the first recipients of the actual government grant have been revealed, and they all come from Citroen.
Citroen e-C3
In fact, all of Citroen’s passenger EVs bar the titchy Ami quadricycle and the van-based e-SpaceTourer people carrier are getting a £1500 discount. That means that the little e-C3 now starts at £20,595, while its elongated Aircross cousin starts at £21,595.
The softly-sprung e-C4 hatch now kicks off at £26,150, while its bizarre jacked-up saloon relative, the e-C4 X, starts at £27,215. The newly revealed e-C5 Aircross family crossover, meanwhile, has had its price slashed before UK deliveries have even started, the model now kicking off at £32,565.
Citroen e-C5 Aircross
Finally, van-with-windows enthusiasts can rejoice as the short-wheelbase version of the e-Berlingo now starts at £29,740.
The grant is open to electric cars costing up to £37,000, and which meet certain standards for low-carbon manufacturing – a criterion that’s likely to rule out cars built in countries like China, Japan and South Korea from being eligible. It’s split into two bands based on these standards – Band 1 cars, which all the Citroens fall under, are eligible for a £1500 discount, while Band 2 cars, of which none have been announced yet, can receive the full £3750 off.
Citroen e-Berlingo
Since the grant was announced, though, plenty of manufacturers have introduced discounts of their own, either to try and cancel out a slump in demand as buyers have waited to find out which cars would be eligible, or because their cars likely won’t be eligible at all. Per transport secretary Heidi Alexander, we can expect to hear about more qualifying cars in the next few weeks.
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