£350 OLEV grant for electric car charging points
At the moment, there is an OLEV grant for home charging point installations.
This is to encourage the uptake of electric vehicles around the UK.
The grant is a 75% contribution towards the cost of one chargepoint and its installation up to a maximum of £350 (including VAT) per household/eligible vehicle from 1 April 2020.
In case you think you’re going mad and were certain it was £500 off, well, the grant was £500, but it was reduced in the budget in March 2020.
Office for Low Emission Vehicles
The grant is paid by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV).
You may see the OLEV grant referred to as the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS).
The official OLEV guidance document for the scheme can be found here.
Here is a summary of the main eligibility criteria:
- Your electric car must have been purchased or leased after 30 September 2016.
- You must have off-street parking.
- You must use an OLEV-approved home charging point installation company.
- That installation company must also be accredited by the charging point manufacturer you choose.
- You must not have used the OLEV grant scheme before.
- The date of the charging point installation must not be more than 4 months ahead of the date of delivery, or start date, of the electric vehicle use.
Fortunately, the home-owner doesn’t have to submit all the paperwork for the OLEV grant. You don’t know how lucky you are! It’s pretty onerous, but the burden falls on the charging point installer instead.
We think the grant is very generous. A charging point installation, covering both the supply of the unit and labour, can easily cost from £800 to well over £1,000. Getting the government to subsidise the cost to the tune of £350 is a major coup. If you have an electric car, or are buying one soon, strike while the iron is hot. The grant may not be around forever…
For a comprehensive overview of EV chargers, please read our Charging Points page.
