EVs sold in the UK could get green number plates, rather than conventional white/yellow ones, under new plans. The Government has started consulting on the proposal, which it says would “encourage the uptake of electric vehicles” and make it easier for local authorities to introduce their own incentive schemes (such as allowing EVs to use bus lanes or park for free).

The Department for Transport says a similar scheme, where EVs were given green number plates and granted access to HOV lanes, in Ontario led to an increase in sales of electric cars. Other countries, such as China and Norway, also differentiate between electric and internal-combustion-engined cars with different types of number plate, and offer various incentives to make them more appealing to buyers.

In the UK buyers get a £3,500 grant towards the cost of an electric car, which are exempt from road tax if they cost under £40,000. In Norway, EV buyers don’t have to pay any purchase/import taxes including VAT at 25 per cent, can drive in bus lanes and park for free in select car parks.

The proposal is part of the Government’s £1.5bn strategy to cut road pollution, which it believes will help the UK become effectively carbon neutral by 2050. It says number plates could be wholly green, have some kind of green symbol or a green stripe down the side.

EV sales are increasing – 25,097 were registered in the first nine months of this year. That’s more than double last year’s figure.

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