Buying an electric vehicle

Thinking of buying an electric vehicle?

If you are, let us know. We want to find out the views of current electric vehicle owners and prospective buyers and to get an early indication of where charge points may need to be installed on-street. Email us at electric.vehicles@southampton.gov.uk.

For independent information about electric vehicles you can visit Next Green Car.

Why should you change to a low emission vehicle?

Vehicles in the UK are predominantly petrol or diesel powered, producing 331,000 tonnes of NOx pollutants (nitrogen oxides that contribute to air pollution) nationwide (DEFRA, 2016). For this reason we fully support a move from combustion engine vehicles to electric ones, and are doing a number of things to encourage this transformation.

Benefits of switching

By switching to a zero emission capable vehicle you can save money on fuel costs, reduce harmful vehicle emissions and help clean up Southampton's air.

There are also financial benefits:

• The Government offers grants for new plug-in vehicles, currently up to £3,500 for cars, £1,500 for motorcycles, £8,000 for vans and £7,500 for taxis. Find out about plug-in car grants
• Zero emission capable vehicles pay either no vehicle tax (VED) or a reduced rate depending on their CO2 emissions, vehicle list price and year of registration. Find out about tax benefits
• There is a range of tax incentives for business users

Further funding help

The GOV.UK website details further information on zero emission vehicles including plug-in grants, a workplace charging scheme as well as an at home charging scheme.

Incentives

We are offering a variety of incentives to EV drivers in Southampton. We want to encourage the switch to low emission vehicles.

City centre season ticket parking reductions

We are currently offering a 90% discount on any city centre season ticket for electric vehicle users.

Charging points

View the current list of car parks with charging points installed.