Now that changes to the UK Government’s Plug-in Car Grant and Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme have come into place and everything has settled down, Next Green Car has taken a look at what the market has done to react. This guide will explain what it means now to buy a plug-in car in the UK and charge it at home.

Before the changes came into effect, there were predictions that different manufacturers would offer prices with varying degrees of discount to customers. Some could have passed on all of the reduction in funding to customers, others absorbed some of the price change with buyers picking up the rest, and a few able to bang the drum loudly by absorbing all of the extra cost themselves.

Unfortunately, companies have passed on the cut in grants directly to customers who now pay more for both their cars and home charge points than in February 2016. It must be said that this is hardly unexpected or unfair considering that margins are tight and the car manufacturers and charge point installers have businesses to run rather than charities.

It must be remembered too that the grants were effectively paid to the manufacturer rather than the customer – with buyers quoted an on-the-road (OTR) price for cars, and fully fitted cost for charge points, subject to the grant.

However, there did seem to be an opportunity for someone to mount a PR coup and capture a large share of customers by absorbing some of the grant cuts themselves. It hasn’t happened though, so we have rounded up what cuts in funding have been made, and what effect that has had.

Read more: Next Green Car