Electric Car Grant UK 2026: £3,750 Off, Plus What Solar Charging Really Saves

Two separate EV-market stories are worth untangling this year. The government's Electric Car Grant is live and knocking real money off new electric cars — that part is straightforwardly good news. Used-EV prices, on the other hand, fell sharply through 2024–2025 but have now turned the corner and are climbing again, so the used-EVs-keep-getting-cheaper story has run its course. What still holds up regardless of which route you take is the running-cost case: pair an EV, new or used, with home solar and a cheap overnight tariff, and the numbers work strongly in the EV's favour. Here's what's actually changed, and how the sums stack up if you're charging from your own roof.

What the Electric Car Grant actually covers

The Electric Car Grant (ECG), run by the Department for Transport, applies a discount of up to £3,750 to eligible new electric cars priced at or under £37,000. Manufacturers began applying from July 2025, and the funding is confirmed through to the 2028–29 financial year, so this isn't a short-lived promotion.

A few things are worth knowing before you assume every EV under £37k qualifies:

• It's applied at the point of sale — you don't claim it yourself. The manufacturer applies through the scheme, and the discount is baked into the price you're quoted.
• Cars must meet manufacturing sustainability criteria — a science-based carbon-reduction commitment from the manufacturer, not just the car's own tailpipe emissions (which are zero for any EV). This is why the grant isn't universal across every sub-£37k model; check the government's own eligible-vehicles list before assuming a specific car qualifies.
• Minimum specification applies — eligible cars need at least a 100-mile real-world range and an 8-year/100,000-mile battery warranty, which rules out very budget or older-generation models.

Dozens of models are already listed as eligible, including several brand-new EVs priced under £30,000 once the discount is applied — a price point that simply didn't exist for new electric cars a couple of years ago.

What's actually happened to used EV prices

The used-EV market did go through a real correction. Prices fell through 2024 and into 2025 as early adopters' cars depreciated hard and supply built up — Autotrader's Retail Price Index had the average used EV down around 7.4% year-on-year by the end of 2025, at roughly £23,500–£24,000.

That correction has since reversed. Autotrader's own Retail Price Index shows used EV prices rising to an average of £24,662 in June 2026, up 1.6% year-on-year — the first annual growth the segment has seen since December 2022. Autotrader's own commentary frames this as buyers recognising the affordability now available in the used EV market, and retailers gaining confidence to price stock firmly, rather than a blip. If you were holding out for used EVs to keep getting cheaper, that window has closed — prices are now moving the other way.

A used EV bought now is still typically far cheaper than the same model would have cost during the 2022 pandemic-era price peak, so it isn't a bad time to buy — but the steady month-by-month discount is over. That shifts the most reliable current lever back to the Electric Car Grant on a new car, which is a fixed discount not subject to the same swings as the second-hand market.

Why home solar changes the running-cost sums

Charging an EV from the grid on a standard variable tariff isn't especially cheap right now — the Ofgem default-tariff price cap for July–September 2026 puts the Direct Debit electricity unit rate at 26.11p/kWh. Charge a typical EV battery from empty on that rate and you're looking at a noticeably higher cost per mile than fuelling a petrol car was a few years ago, before you factor in anything smarter.

Two things bring that down substantially:

• A cheap overnight EV tariff. Octopus's Intelligent Octopus Go offers an off-peak rate of 8p/kWh during a roughly six-hour overnight window, plus smart charging that times most of your car's top-up to the cheapest hours automatically. That alone cuts the per-mile electricity cost to a fraction of the standard rate — see our full breakdown in our Octopus Energy EV charger guide.
• Solar self-consumption. If you charge during daylight hours — plausible for anyone working from home, or simply topping up at the weekend — you're using electricity you've already generated for free, rather than buying it at any rate at all. A well-sized solar array can realistically cover a meaningful share of a typical EV's daytime charging needs; see how many solar panels you need for EV charging for the sizing math specific to your annual mileage.

Combine the two — cheap overnight tariff for the bulk of charging, solar top-ups whenever the car's home during the day — and the average cost per mile for driving an EV falls well below what most petrol or diesel drivers are paying at the pump, without needing an unusually large solar system or a battery. For the full mechanics of pairing panels, a home charger and a smart tariff, see our complete guide to EV charging with solar.

So is it still worth buying now?

The purchase-price picture is mixed, and it's worth being straight about that: the used-EV bargain window has closed, and prices there are now rising, not falling. What hasn't changed is the running-cost case. A grant-discounted new EV, or a used EV bought at today's (higher-than-2025-but-still-below-2022-peak) prices, both charge on the same electricity — and pairing that with home solar and a cheap overnight tariff still makes the cost per mile dramatically lower than running a petrol or diesel car. Grant funding, used-car pricing and tariff structures will all keep moving, so treat this as where things stand today rather than a one-way bet. If you're already leaning towards an EV and have solar (or are planning it), the purchase-price support plus cheap home charging is a solid basis to act on now.

If you haven't got solar yet and are weighing whether it's worth adding before or alongside an EV purchase, our solar panels worth it in the UK guide walks through the payback math independently of EV charging, and a home charger itself is a separate cost to budget for — see our best home EV charger buyer's guide for install pricing and unit recommendations.