Government to cut red tape for businesses using e-vans

• The Government is cutting red tape for businesses using e-vans, bringing them in line with petrol and diesel vans for the first time and slashing costs for businesses.
• E-vans weighing between 3.5 and 4.25 tonnes will now be moved from heavy vehicle testing requirements to Class 7 MOT rules, meaning less strenuous tests, more flexibility, and savings of up to 60% on MOTs.
• From 1 June, new electric vans in this weight class will only need their first MOT three years after registration, rather than one year after registration. As e-vans are heavier than petrol and diesel vans, they have until now, faced more stringent testing requirements than petrol and diesel vans of the same size.
• This builds on the Government's £1 billion commitment to back businesses to go electric, including savings of up to £5,000 off new zero emission vans and up to £81,000 off the heaviest zero emission trucks.
• Already, one in four new cars sold are now electric, and there are more than 2 million EVs in the UK.
• Thanks to £7.5 billion in Government funding to support the EV transition, it has never been easier or cheaper to make the switch, especially against the backdrop of high and fluctuating prices at the pumps.
• We’re also delivering the infrastructure needed to support the uptake in electric cars, having announced £600m just last year to rollout hundreds of thousands more chargers, building on the over 120,000 already available; that’s nearly twice as many chargers as fuel pumps.

Aviation, Maritime and Decarbonisation Minister Keir Mather said:

"We're backing UK businesses to expand and decarbonise their fleets, and that’s why we’re investing over £1 billion to support businesses to roll out e-vans, trucks and the charging needed to support them.

“Today’s announcement goes even further. As well as saving up to £5,000 off the cost of a new electric van, businesses will now no longer face unnecessary red tape when they make the switch, cutting costs, reducing bureaucracy and driving growth up and down the country.”

Toby Poston, BVRLA Chief Executive:

“Tackling the barriers to large electric van uptake has been a top priority for the BVRLA and our members. Following extensive collaboration between government and industry, these changes remove major operational hurdles for fleets and unlock a critical part of the UK’s transition to zero-emission road transport.”