Rachel Reeves, chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, has written to BEIS Ministers with a series of questions on the government’s plans on electric vehicles.

The correspondence to Nadhim Zahawi, the Minister for Business and Industry, questions the lack of long-term certainty around the electric vehicle Plug-in Car Grant, asking why the grant has only been extended to 2022-23, with no visibility on its future thereafter, and confusion over the target end date for sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles. Reeves says that messages, subsequent to the initial announcement, have been confusing for drivers.

She, therefore, seeks further information on under what conditions the government would adopt a 2030 phase out date for ending the sales of new and diesel cars and vans, and the possibility of a phase out date later than 2035. This is in addition to the publishing of a timetable to conform the future of the Plug-in Car Grant, ahead of its current expiration in 2023.