The Department for Transport (DfT) plans to fully phase out the £3,500 Plug-in Car Grant subsidy.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps confirmed the government wants to pull the plug on the grant when speaking to The Times.

However, Shapps did not indicate when exactly the incentive will be scrapped. He told The Times, “I make no bones about it. We want to remove all the subsidy. So you can see this in two ways. If you are out there reading this, thinking of buying an electric car, buy it while the subsidy’s there, because it will go eventually.”

The Sunday Times Driving reports that while the transport secretary has personally benefitted from the scheme, having purchased a pure-electric Tesla Model 3 saloon, and believes the scheme is “helping people switch to the emissions-free cars of the future”, he said he can’t promise “lots of extra public bungs of taxpayers’ cash so you can buy your new car” in future.

Shapps also told The Times that one way the government could do ensure the government meets its emissions reduction and its Road to Zero strategy, is by increasing the number of charging points across the country. “I see government’s role as being to kick-start the market, to put in sufficient charging points, because not everybody will be able to achieve it at home. I have a drive I can put a charging point on and there happens to be a supercharger down the road. That influenced me to order the car — the fact I knew there was a charging point within a mile or two,” said the transport secretary.