EV and EV Charger Incentives in Europe: A Complete Guide

Looking to buy an EV or install an EV charger? Research into EV and EV charger incentives shows that national incentives and benefits for EVs and EV chargers vary greatly across Western Europe and the rest of the EU. Only 12 EU countries offer bonus payments or premiums to buyers of EVs, although most grant some kind of tax reduction or exemption for buyers and owners of EVs, for example. Faced with a mountain of research papers, interactive maps and policy reports, it can feel overwhelming to try to find information about your country’s national policy. To make things easier, we’ve collated the major policies from a handful of Western European countries. This should help you on your way to successfully buying your future EV, EV fleet or EV charger. Simply click on your country’s link below to find the right section for you.

This article will sometimes refer to electric vehicles as EVs. Battery electric vehicles will sometimes be referred to as BEVs and plug-in-hybrids – vehicles that combine a gasoline or diesel engine with an electric motor and a large rechargeable battery – will sometimes be referred to as PHEVs.

EU Monetary EV Incentive Map

Belgium

Belgium is not renowned for EVs but has grown its EV market rapidly since 2014. Electric vehicles currently account for just under 10% of market share. This figure should grow rapidly over the coming decades, as different regional governments launch a number of new measures, including bans on polluting vehicles as well as favorable EV taxation policies. A number of incentives now exist for different kinds of EVs: 

EV Incentives

Tax Benefits

• Registration tax:
  • Flanders: EVs and plug-in hybrids are exempt from registration tax in Flanders until the end of 2020. 
  • Brussels and Wallonia: Fully-electric vehicles pay only the minimum rate (€61.50)
• Ownership tax:
  • Flanders: Electric cars emitting less than 50g Co2/km are exempt from ownership tax in Flanders until the end of 2020. 
  • Brussels and Wallonia: Electric cars have the lowest rate of annual ownership (circulation) tax (€83.56 as opposed to €1,900). 
• Company tax: The company expense tax deductible is 100% for electric vehicles emitting less than 42g CO2/km.

EV Charging Incentives

Tax Benefits

• Companies operating under the corporate tax system can benefit from a 13.5% deduction on investments in charging infrastructure – this means a saving of up to €14,375.
• 75% of the cost of charging can be deducted from individual income tax.
• In Brussels, the tax of up to €75 on office parking spaces is waived for companies that fit charging units.

Denmark

Denmark is not quite up to speed with its fellow countries, such as Sweden and Norway, when it comes to its EV and EV charging landscape. After the government started to phase out EV incentives in 2015, EV sales in the country plummeted. Indeed, in 2017, EV car sales represented only 0.4% of all car sales in the country. But thanks to a new climate law and scrapping of EV tax increases in 2019, things are looking up for Denmark. Their EV market share is now around 4%. Some of the measures below are part of this rethink:

EV Incentives

Tax Benefits

• Registration tax: Denmark removed the registration tax benefits for EVs (exemption in 2015 to full payment in 2020), which resulted in a decline in EV sales in the country. As of 2020, a new phase-in scheme will begin as follows: 20% of the full tax in 2020, 65% in 2021, 90% in 2022 and 100% in 2023, but only for cars below DKK 400,000 (roughly €54,000) in value.
• The Danish government also introduced a deduction in registration tax based on battery capacity in April 2017.
• Ownership tax: In Denmark, circulation taxes are based on fuel consumption and weight. BEVs pay the minimum amount and plug-in hybrids pay less than an equivalent diesel or gasoline car.

Local Benefits

• Parking fees: Electric cars are exempt from parking fees up to DKK 5,000 (€670) per year.

Subsidies for Private/Public Sector Purchase of EVs

• Public procurement: the Danish Energy Agency has funded programs to support municipalities and companies’ purchase of electric cars for fleets since 2013.

EV Charging Incentives

Tax Benefits

• Denmark currently offers a tax exemption for commercial charging. This means that companies that supply EV charging on a commercial basis can receive an electricity tax rebate of around 1 DKK (€0.13) per kilowatt-hour.

Favorable Tariffs for Buses

• Favorable tariffs for electric bus charging will last until 2024.

Finland

When it comes to EVs, Finland, like Denmark, has taken more of a rocky road than its neighbors Sweden and Norway. For a long time, Finland had very few incentives and, notably, no subsidies for EVs. Coupled with the government adoption of bio-fuels and a perception issue with EVs in Finland, the country had very low EV sales until recently. With the introduction of more incentives, sales have picked up over the last couple of years, reaching 14% market share in 2020.

EV Incentives

Eco-tax

• In Finland, fuel taxes have more than doubled the price of diesel, and more than tripled the price of gasoline, making EVs a much more affordable option.

Subsidies

• Purchase grants: Individuals can receive up to €2,000 for new BEVs, as long as the list price of the car does not exceed €50,000.
• The Finnish government runs scrapping schemes every couple of years (in 2015, 2017 and 2018, and probably again in the near future) that offer individuals bonuses of up to €2000 for scrapping old diesel/gasoline vehicles and buying new BEVs/PHEVs.

Tax Benefits

• Ownership tax benefits: EVs pay the minimum rate (5%) of the CO2 based registration tax.

EV Charging Incentives

Investment in Public Charging Charging Infrastructure

• Helsinki, Finland’s capital city, has invested €4.8 million to build public charging stations over the last three years, which has nearly tripled the number of such charging points in the country. The Finnish Government has recently announced a €5.5 million budget to increase charging infrastructure in 2020-2021.

Subsidies

• In 2016, the Ministry of Employment and Economy extended its EV charging subsidy program as part of an energy investment program and allocated €4,8 million for developing public charging infrastructure in Finland. This program offers subsidies to commercial organizations that want to build charging infrastructure and lease electric vehicles as company cars. Participating organizations can receive up to 35% of charging investments and up to 30% of the capital share of leasing expenses.
• In 2017, the Finnish Housing Finance and Development Centre budgeted €1,5 million in subsidies for housing co-operatives, condominiums, and other similar organizations that build charging points for their residents. Such organizations can apply for a subsidy to cover 35%, or €90,000, of the total expenses of purchasing and installing charging points, on the condition that they build charging points for at least five vehicles.

France

France is well-known for its dedication to electrification. Current President Emmanuel Macron recently announced an €8 billion rescue plan for the local auto industry and set a goal of having over 100,000 public charging points next year, producing 1 million EVs annually by 2025 and boosting EV adoption rates in the near future. To achieve these objectives, €1.3 billion in incentives has been set aside, meaning that residents can now save up to €19.000 when buying an EV. Here’s an overview of the main incentives:

EV Incentives

Subsidies

• Purchase grant (ecological bonus):
  • A bonus of up to €7,000 for vehicles emitting 20g CO2/km or less
  • A bonus for of up to €2,000 for plug-in hybrid vehicles emitting between 21g – 50g CO2/km
• Scrappage scheme (conversion bonus): up to €5,000 for the purchase of second hand or new BEVs and PHEVs if you get rid of your diesel car (older than 2001) or gasoline car (older than 1997). 
• Low emission zone bonus: €1,000 subsidy for the purchase of an EV if you live or work in a low emission zone

Tax Benefits

• Registration tax: Both fully-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids are eligible for either a 50% discount or are fully exempt from paying the license plate registration (carte grise) in Metropolitan France depending on the region. 
• Company car tax: Fully-electric vehicles are exempt from this tax.

Local Incentives

• Up to €6,000 in additional purchasing grants is available in specific regions; check our detailed France EV incentive guide for a full breakdown of local incentives
• Up to two hours of free parking in certain municipalities with a green card (eligible for EVs). 
• The mayor of Paris said that the 3,244 parking spaces previously dedicated to the Autolib scheme – a public EV car-sharing scheme available in Paris, Lyon and Bordeaux between 2011- 2018, but now defunct – will be designated as free parking for Parisian EV drivers.

EV Charging Incentives

Subsidies

• Subsidy for private individuals:
  • €300 tax credit (crédit d’impôt transition énergétique; CITE) on the purchase and installation of an EV charger at your main residence
• Subsidy for companies:
  • Up to 40% of the purchase and installation costs of EV charging points for businesses
• Subsidy for condos:
  • Up to 50% of the purchase and installation costs of charging points at condominiums (apartment blocks)
• Subsidy for public entities:
  • Up to 40% of the purchase and installation costs (capped at €2,160) of charging points installed by municipalities. Charging points must be installed at the request of EV drivers and be located within a radius of 500 metres of their place of residence or work.

Check our France EV Incentive Guide for a more in-depth overview.

Germany

Germany offers some of the most generous EV incentives in Europe as the country is serious about reaching its objectives of having 10 million EVs and 1 million charging stations by 2030. This summer’s €130 billion post-COVID-19 stimulus package includes significant funding to boost EV incentives even more, meaning that a Seat Mii Electric can now be purchased for under €11,000. Here’s all you need to know:

EV Incentives

Subsidies

Germany’s ‘Umweltbonus’ (environmental bonus) program encourages the purchase of EVs and the decommissioning of diesel and gasoline vehicles, with incentives like:

• Purchase grants:
  • For vehicles priced up to €40,000:
    • Fully-electric: €9,000 
    • Plug-in hybrid: €6,750 
  • For vehicles priced up to €65,000:
    • Fully-electric: €7,500 
    • Plug-in hybrid: €5,625 
• An additional bonus of €100 is available if the purchased EV is equipped with an Acoustic Vehicle Alert System (AVAS)
• Until 2030, a one-off subsidy of up to 50% of the purchase costs of purely electric vehicles used for commercial deliveries.

Tax Benefits

Kfz-Steuer (motor vehicle tax): 

• Fully-electric vehicles registered between 2011 and 2030 have a 10-year exemption from this tax. This means that EV owners in Germany can save, on average, around €194 in ownership tax per car and year, but based on the type of car, this figure can even be much higher. You can use this calculator to estimate how much car tax you’d pay if you opt for an ICE car.
• Plug-in hybrid EVs pay the tax, but it’s lower for them than diesel/gasoline vehicles, in proportion with their lower CO2 emissions.

Company car tax: 

• private usage of a fully-electric company car with a list price below €60,000, is taxed at only 0.25% of the list price per month. In comparison, Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) cars are taxed at 1%.
• private usage of a hybrid company car or a fully-electric company car with a list price above €60,000, is taxed at only 0.5% of the list price per month. In comparison, ICE cars are taxed at 1%.

VAT: 

• Will temporarily fall from 19 to 16% between 1 July – 30 December 2020. This tax incentive benefits BEVs as well as PHEVs.

Local Incentives for BEVs:

• Up to €1,500 in additional purchase grants from cities and municipalities depending on your place of residence (you check this here)
• Additional EV subsidies are also often paid by local energy producers to new or existing customers (you check this here)
• Free parking
• Reserved parking spots
• Bus lane use

EV Charging Incentives

Subsidies for private individuals:

National grants:

• KfW-Bank: 10-30% incentive for the purchase and installation of a wallbox charger

Local grants:

• Grants offered by cities, municipalities and federal states:
  • Up to €3,500 (find out more in our detailed Germany EV incentive guide)
• Grants offered by energy providers:
  • Up to €400 (find out more in our detailed Germany EV incentive guide)

Subsidies for public charging stations:

• A subsidy of up to €3,000 for purchasing charging stations of up to 22 kW.
• A subsidy of up to €12,000 for purchasing DC chargers up to 100 kW.
• A subsidy of up to €30,000 for purchasing DC chargers above 100 kW.
• Connections to the grid are subsidized by up to €5,000 for low voltage and €50,000 for medium voltage grid connections.

Tax Benefits

• Private and company car owners of plug-in electric vehicles that charge their cars in their employer premises are exempt from declaring this as a cash benefit in their income tax return. 
• Company car owners that charge their EVs at home can even benefit from a tax reduction. 
• Employers offering free charging of electric vehicles or bicycles will not be taxed for this service until 2030.

Check our German EV Incentive Guide for a more in-depth overview.

Italy

Previously fairly lax on electrification, in May 2019, Italy ratified an ‘Eco-Bonus’ program, which will dedicate €60 million in 2019 and €70 million in 2020 and 2021 to subsidies for electric or very low-emission hybrid vehicles and EV charging infrastructure. The Eco-Bonus program aims to cut net emissions to zero by 2050 and mandates that electric vehicles should replace gasoline or diesel vehicles by 2035 or earlier. A new bill is being released, set to increase current incentives by 50% from August – December 2020, in a bid to stimulate economic recovery post-COVID-19 lockdown. Here are the updated 2020 incentives:

EV Incentives

Subsidies

• Subsidies of up to €6,000 towards the purchase or lease of a new electrified vehicle in the M1 category (passenger cars for up to 8 people) with a CO2 emission rating of up to 20 g/km for individuals and companies – essentially, only BEVs.
• Subsidies of up to €3,500 for vehicles that emit between 21 and 60 g/km (plug-in hybrids and some smaller regular hybrids) for individuals and companies.
• These bonuses can rise to €10,000 and €6,500 (respectively) if you scrap an older vehicle that complies with the Euro 1, 2, 3 or 4 emission standards. 
• These amounts are deducted from the dealer’s sales price. 

Tax Benefits

• Ownership Tax: buyers of full-electric or hybrid vehicles enjoy exemption from the annual registration tax for five years after they have purchased their vehicle. After this five‐year period, they benefit from a 75% reduction of the equivalent tax rate for most petrol vehicles.

Eco-Taxes 

• An ‘eco-tax’: new vehicles purchased and registered in Italy between 1 March 2019 to 31 December 2021, including those leased, will have to pay a penalty for choosing a polluting model.

Local Benefits

• Some cities in Italy offer incentives, such as free parking in urban areas and free circulation in limited circulation areas (ZTL zones).

EV Charging Incentives

• Individuals, companies and condominiums can access a new tax deduction of 50% on a total amount of maximum €3,000, spread out into ten equal annual installments, for the purchase and installation costs of EV chargers from 1 March 2019 to 31 December 2021.

Luxembourg

Luxembourg maintains its position amongst the top 14 EV markets in Europe, with a 3% market share in 2020. Whilst this EV uptake is at the lower end of the scale, compared to say 48% in Norway, the country is continuing to improve its EV market. The following incentives are enabling the upward trend: 

EV Incentives

Subsidies

• Purchase subsidies of up to €5,000 for zero-emissions vehicles (BEV and FCEV) and €2,500 for PHEVs with CO2 emissions of 50g/kg or less.
• Up to €500 refund offered for the purchase of an electric quad, motorcycle, light motorcycle (125 cm3) or moped (and pedelec 45). 
• A subsidy of up to €300 will be offered on the purchase of a new electric bike or pedelec25 (pedal-assisted bike with a power output of no more than 0.25 kW) purchased in 2019.

Tax Benefits

• Ownership Tax Benefits: Tax reduction on CO2 based vehicle tax.
• Company Tax Benefits: Expenses related to the use of company cars (calculated on the basis of CO2 emissions) can be deducted from corporate income for those using vehicles with zero or low emissions.

Norway

Norway is leading the EV race in Europe due to its longstanding commitment since the 1990s to promoting EVs. With an original plan to have 100,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2020, Norway exceeded this number in 2018. Indeed, almost 60% of all new cars sold in Norway during March 2019 were entirely electric-powered. Interestingly, the country’s incentives program does not include many subsidies for EVs and EV chargers, but instead offers tax cuts and heavy investment in publicly administered EV charging infrastructure, as we shall see below:

EV Incentives

Tax Benefits

• Purchase tax and VAT: No purchase tax and no VAT on the purchase of electric vehicles. 
• Annual road tax: 75-90% tax cut for annual road tax for both fully-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, 
• Company car tax: 50% discount on company car tax for both fully-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. 
• Exemption from acquisition tax.
• Exemption from the country’s 25% value-added tax

Local Benefits

• According to Norwegian law, counties and municipalities can only charge EV owners 50% or less of the price for fossil fuel cars on ferries, public parking and toll roads.
• In practice, this means both discounts and total exemptions from toll road fees, ferry ride fees, and parking fees, depending on the locality.

EV Charging Incentives

Public Investment in Chargers 

Norway has more than 10,000 publicly available charging points and more than 1500 cars can fast-charge at the same time. Rather than offering tax cuts and subsidies to citizens and businesses, Norway has focused on investing in public charging infrastructure. Its EV charging program is currently focusing on:

• Public funding for fast charging stations every 50 km on main roads.
• Oslo’s expansion of its budget for EV charging infrastructure deployment in 2018.
• Doubling the budget allocated to housing associations for installing chargers, to reach NOK 20 million (€2.1 million).
• Certain local service stations have begun to replace petrol pumps with EV chargers, upping the local charging infrastructure available to EV owners.

Spain

Spain introduced its first alternative mobility incentive program in 2017 and its place in the EV race has only been strengthened since then. In fact, in the first half of 2018, nearly double the number of electrified vehicles were sold than in the previous year as a whole. In 2019, The Spanish Alternative Mobility program – MOVES – was launched with a budget of €45 million and a mission to promote electric vehicles and charging infrastructure in Spain. This year, two new automobile plans, Moves II and Renove, have been introduced to renew and extend measures to boost EV adoption. Here are the main incentives:

EV Incentives

Different purchase grants are available via the Moves II and Renove scheme. However, they can’t be combined with each other. For the quickest way to find out what scheme offers the highest grant for private individuals looking to buy a passenger car, use our free & full-resolution decision tree infographic here.

Moves II Grants

• Grants for the purchase or lease of a battery electric vehicle (BEV), plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) or extended range electric vehicle (EREV):
  • Passenger vehicle (list price up to €45,000):
    • 30-90 km range: €1,900, rising to €2,600 if you scrap your old car 
    • 90 km range or more: €4,000, rising to €5,500 if you scrap your old car
  • Light goods vehicle (up to 3.5 tonnes):
    • 30 km range or more: €4,400, rising to €6,000 if you scrap your old vehicle
  • Bus (up to 5 tonnes) & heavy goods vehicle (3.5-12 tonnes):
    • €8,000
  • Coach (up to 5 tonnes) & heavy goods vehicle (over 12 tonnes):
    • €15,000
• Grants for the purchase or lease of a BEV:
  • Quadricycle:
    • Up to 350 kg: €600
    • Up to 400 kg: €800
  • Motorcycle (70 km range or more; list price up to €10,000):
    • €750 
• Grants are also available to companies. You can find a full breakdown of these in our detailed Spain EV Incentive Guide.

Renove Grants

Grants for the purchase or lease of an electric vehicle:

• Passenger vehicle:
  • BEV or EREV: €4,000 (max. list price: €45,000)
  • PHEV (40 km range or more): €2,600 (max. list price: €45,000)
  • PHEV (less than 40 km range) or HEV:
    • Energy classification A: €1,000 (max. list price: €35,000)
    • Energy classification B: €600 (max. list price: €35,000)
  • Additional benefits:
    • €500 if the car you scrap is 20 years or older
    • €500 if your household income is below €1.500 per month
• Light goods vehicle:
  • Maximum technical permissible mass: less than 2.5 tonnes
    • BEV, EREV or PHEV (40 km range or more): €4,000 
    • PHEV (less than 40 km range) & HEVs: €1,200 
  • Maximum technical permissible mass: 2.5 tonnes or more
    • BEV, EREV or PHEV (40 km range or more): €4,000 
    • PHEV (less than 40 km range) or HEVs: €2,700 
  • Additional benefits:
    • €500 if the car you scrap is 20 years or older
    • €500 if your household income is below €1.500 per month
• Motorcycle (BEV; 70 km range or more; 3 kW engine power; max. list price: €10,000):
  • €750 

Grants are also available to companies. You can find a full breakdown of these in our detailed Spain EV Incentive Guide.

Tax Benefits

• Registration tax benefits: no registration tax for Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs). 
• Ownership tax benefits: road tax exemption or reduction depending on local policies. For instance, some city councils (including Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, and Valencia) have chosen to reduce the annual circulation tax (ownership tax) for electric and fuel-efficient vehicles by up to 75%.

Local Benefits

• Toll exemption on regional highways for electric vehicles.
• Free parking in selected cities.
• Traffic lanes reserved for high occupancy circulation can be used by BEVs.

EV Charging Incentives

Private individuals and companies can get Moves II subsidies of up to 30-40% of the purchase and installation costs (up to a total sum of €100,000) for the development of public and private charging infrastructure. Grants are distributed and managed by each autonomous community and you find the specific application link for your region here.

Check our Spain EV Incentive Guide for a more in-depth overview.

Sweden

Sweden is looking to catch up with its neighbor Norway when it comes to EV dominance. Altering its EV incentives program in the last year or so to include major grants for new buyers of EVs has massively paid off in this respect. Despite the Corona crisis and resultant drop in overall car sales, Sweden’s EV market share is at 20%. This is very important for Sweden’s entire energy system: demand for electricity in Stockholm and other cities is outgrowing capacity in local grids. As such, Sweden needs to find new ways to support power networks during supply troughs. This year they have begun a two-year project developing a battery storage facility to increase grid capacity. 

This means that to reach the government target of becoming carbon neutral by 2045, Sweden must increase EV use from 70,000 to 2.5 million plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles by the end of the next decade. Crucially, it needs to implement this in a way that allows such vehicles to help balance and settle the grid, rather than just take power from it. The country’s current push towards EVs has led to the following incentives:

EV Incentives

Sweden has a ‘bonus-malus system’, similar to France, through which eco-friendly vehicles with relatively low emissions of max 70g CO2/km are eligible for a grant, whilst legacy vehicles are discouraged:

Subsidies 

• Individuals and businesses can receive up to 60,000 SEK (€6,000) for the purchase of EVs and plug-in hybrid vehicles. The bonus has to be a maximum of 25% of the car’s (new) purchase price. 

Tax Benefits

• The five-year exemption from vehicle tax for environmentally-friendly cars was replaced in 2018 by the above bonus scheme.
• A 25% tax rebate is currently available for buyers of electric bikes, quadricycles or tricycles.
• Company car tax: 40% discount on company car tax for both fully-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.

Eco-Tax

• Vehicle tax (malus) will be increased for petrol and diesel vehicles in the first three years of the first tax liability of the vehicle from 2019 onwards. This tax will increase over time.

Local Incentives

• Free parking in some public places.
• Free access to High-Occupancy Vehicle and bus lanes in some areas.

EV Charging Incentives

Subsidies

Sweden has introduced its ‘Klimatklivet’ program, which is an investment incentive initiative for local and regional projects that aim to reduce CO2 emissions. Its policies include incentives for EV charging infrastructure, notably:

• A grant that covers up to 50% of the investment in both public and private charging stations by a range of different types of organizations, companies, municipalities, foundations, and associations, such as housing associations.
• ‘Klimatklivet’ is exclusively designed for businesses and public associations and its grants are given out 4 times a year. 

Sweden’s ’Charge at Home’ program is a support scheme for individuals wishing to purchase home chargers:

• Through this program, individuals can receive up to 50% or SEK 10 000 (€960) for hardware and installation costs of home chargers.
• Between 2018 and 2020, this will represent a total of SEK 90 million (€8.7 million) allocated annually to support the installation of home EV chargers.

The Netherlands

The Netherlands is known for its forward-thinking approach to EV policy and its huge amount of EV chargers. Indeed, it has the highest ratio of public charging points and electric vehicles per 100 km on the planet. Moreover, its incentive policies are so successful that electric car ownership now costs the same as diesel or gasoline car ownership. The main EV and EV charging incentives following the recently updated subsidy scheme include:

EV Incentives

Subsidies

• €4,000 for purchasing or leasing a new EV
• €2,000 for purchasing or leasing a used EV

Tax Benefits

• Purchase tax (BPM): Purely electric vehicles are fully exempt from purchase tax and PHEVs pay a reduced fee based on their emission levels
• Ownership tax (MRB): Until 2024, purely electric vehicles are exempt from this tax and PHEVs get a 50% discount. In 2025, fully electric EVs will only pay 25% and PHEVs 75% of the tax. 
• Company car tax (Bijtelling): EV owners pay a reduced fee in 2020 (8%), 2021 (12%), 2022-24 (16%) and 2025 (17%) instead of the standard fee of 22%
• Plans for 2025 indicate that electric vehicles may become exempt from value added and motor vehicle taxes, but this has not been confirmed yet.

Eco-tax

• Punitive measures: high-emitting CO2 vehicles that are more than 12 years old have to pay another 15% on top of existing ownership tax as of 2019.
• Taxes for gasoline and diesel will be increased by one cent per liter in 2020 and will see another one-cent increase in 2023.

Banning Gasoline/Petrol Cars

• From 2030, only emission-free vehicles will be allowed to be newly registered in the Netherlands.

EV Charging Incentives

While the Netherlands doesn’t offer any incentives for the purchase of EV chargers for private individuals, citizens in most regions can simply request a free installation of a public charging point near their place of residence or work. Once installed, access to the charger is free and you only pay for the energy used to charge your car.

Businesses can take advantage of tax benefits via the Environmental investment allowance (MIA) and the Random depreciation of environmental investments (VAMIL) schemes when investing in the installation of EV chargers.

Check our Netherlands EV Incentive Guide for a more in-depth overview.

United Kingdom

The UK is one of the few governments that has a comprehensive strategy for electrification, with both an official Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) and an electrification strategy called the Road to Zero strategy. Both OZEV and other government departments working on the strategy aim to end the sale of fossil-powered vehicles by 2040 using policies covering commercial vehicles, public transport, charging infrastructure and more. Road to Zero has a £290m budget dedicated to boosting the use of low-emission vehicles. As of September 2019, the UK government has also announced that a further £500 million will be invested over the coming years in “green technologies for a cleaner and healthier future.” This includes a new £400 million Charging Infrastructure Investment fund, managed and invested on a commercial basis by private sector partners, who will pay for half the fund (£200 million). The first £70 million investment, provided by the UK government and the car company Masdar, will go towards creating 3,000 new rapid charge points, more than doubling the number of rapid charge points across the UK by 2024. Some of the UK’s EV and EV charging incentives include:

EV Incentives

Subsidies

• Purchase grant: with the Plug-in Car Grant, buyers can receive up to:
  • 35% of the cost of an electric car (up to a maximum of £3,000 depending on the model)
  • 20% of the cost of an electric motorcycle or moped (up to a max. of £1,500). 
  • 20% of the cost of an electric van (up to a max. of £8,000). 
  • 20% of the cost of a large electric van or truck (up to a max. of £20,000 for first 200 orders, after that up to a max. of £8,000). 
  • 20% of the cost of an electric taxi (up to a max. of £7,500). 
• This grant is administered by OZEV. You do not need to do anything to benefit from this grant scheme as the dealer will include the value of the grant in the vehicle’s price. Car manufacturers and dealerships can apply here to participate.

Tax Benefits

• Ownership tax: purely electric vehicles costing less than £40,000 are exempt from the annual road tax.
• Company car tax: businesses that buy EVs can write down 100% of the purchase price against their corporation tax liability if the vehicle emits no more than 50g/km CO2, (paying just 1% CCT in 2021, and 2% in 2022); plug-in electric vehicles emitting less than 50g/km of CO2 have their company car tax set at 16% in 2020, which is 4-8% lower than the tax on diesel company vehicles.

Local Benefits

• Scotland: The Scottish Government offers an interest-free loan to support drivers switching to an EV or hybrid car. Loans of up to £35,000 to cover the cost of purchasing a new electric/hybrid vehicle, repaid over a period of 6 years. Find out more here. 
• Northern Ireland: A maximum grant of €5,000 is available for privately bought EVs, and a max grant of €3,800 for those bought commercially. Find out more here.
• London: EVs and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) are exempt from London’s Congestion Charge scheme until 2025.
• Local parking benefits: There is free and discounted parking for EVs in some localities.

The UK government is making plans to give EVs special green number plates so that they can more easily benefit from local incentives, such as free parking, using bus lanes and accessing areas cut-off from normal vehicles.

EV Charging Incentives

£80m of the Road to Zero strategy’s £290m budget is focused on improving EV charging infrastructure, including some of the following policies:

Subsidies

• The Electric Vehicle Home Charge Scheme (OZEV) enables individual buyers of eligible EVs to receive a grant for up to 75% (capped at £350, inc. VAT) of the total purchase and installation costs of one EV charger for their home and the associated installation costs. Company cars and leased cars are also eligible. 
• The Workplace Chargepoint Grant is a voucher-based scheme that provides the upfront costs for the purchase and installation of EV charging points at workplaces:
  • Firms can cover 75% of all purchase and installation costs, up to a maximum of £350 for each socket, for up to a maximum of 40 across all sites 
• Some local authorities offer the On-Street Residential Charge point Scheme (ORCS), which provides funding towards the cost of installing on-street charging points.

Tax Benefits

• Company Tax Benefits: businesses that install charging infrastructure can access tax benefits through a 100% first-year allowance (FYA) for expenditure incurred on electric vehicle charging equipment.

Check our UK EV Incentive Guide for a more in-depth overview.

Conclusion

As shown above, although incentives for EVs and EV charging do exist in many Western European countries, some countries, notably Sweden, Norway, France, the UK, and the Netherlands, clearly lead the EV and EV charging race. As such, it’s perhaps no surprise that 76% of the 144,000 EV charging points in the EU are located in just four countries: 26% in the Netherlands (37,037), 19% in Germany (27,459), 17% in France (24,850) and 13% in the United Kingdom (19,076). This state of play is expected to even out though, as countries in the center and south of Europe, such as Spain and Italy, roll-out major e-mobility incentive programs this year and in the years to come.

Regardless of your home country, make sure you refer to this handy guide when buying your EV or EV charger. After all, you don’t want to miss out on any incentives that you could benefit from. Researching EV and EV charging incentives is no longer a time-consuming process, because we’ve gathered all the information you need in one useful guide. 

For more information about which EV chargers might work best for you or your company, check out our website.