GRANT ENDS 2024: Taxi drivers could be hit with £7,500 extra cost for new electric taxis

Taxi drivers could be hit with a further £7,500 electric taxi bill should the Government not extend further grants currently in place.

The taxi industry continues its shift to greener Zero Emission Capable (ZEC) vehicles with thousands of electric black cabs roaming the roads in London and beyond.

The Government has been helping with that shift with a Plug-in Taxi Grant (PiTG) which was introduced as an incentive scheme designed to support the uptake of purpose-built ZEC taxis.

The grant is also designed to bridge the cost gap that currently exists between taxis powered by internal combustion engines versus new ultra-low emission technologies.

Transport ministers extended the PiTG scheme back in 2022 to run until at least the financial year 2023/24 for new electric taxis.

Since then no further discussions have been made public about whether the scheme will run past April 2024.

Currently the PiTG scheme offers a discount on the price of eligible purpose-built taxis up to a maximum of £7,500 or £3,000 – depending on the vehicle’s range, emissions and design.

It is available to all taxi drivers and businesses buying or leasing a new purpose-built taxi.

Under the scheme, eligible taxis are allocated into 1 of 2 categories based on their carbon emissions and zero-emission range:

• A Category 1 PiTG (up to £7,500) must have a zero-emission range of 70 miles or more and emissions of less than 50gCO2/km.

• A Category 2 PiTG (up to £3,000) must have a zero-emission range of 10 to 69 miles and emissions of less than 50gCO2/km.

The most popular electric taxi, the LEVC TX, falls in the Category 1 range.

If the PiTG is not extended further than the 2023/24 planned end date, cabbies already battling high finance and expensive vehicle costs could be hit with a further £7,500 bill.