What the 2020 UK Budget means for Electric Vehicles and renewable energy
This week’s budget announcement was understandably overshadowed by the current coronavirus outbreak, however there was some information surrounding the future investment for electric vehicles.
Electric Vehicles will benefit from the Budget as a Rapid Charging Fund has been created to help businesses with the cost of connecting charge points to the electricity grid and an extra £403 million is being put towards the plug-in car grant, now extended to 2022-23. UK supply chains will also be supported for the large-scale production of EVs with £1 billion of investment.
However, renewable energy appears to have been sidestepped by the government, disappointingly receiving no new announcements from the Budget. The Budget did, however, commit to doubling the size of the Energy Innovation Programme to help meet net-zero targets and review business rates which can act as a barrier to businesses adopting renewable energy sources.
Although it is positive to see the Budget supporting the adoption of Electric Vehicles and committing to meeting net-zero rates, renewable energy is still an essential way of going green and it is disappointing that the Budget does not include any initiatives for alternative energy sources.