The British government is reportedly planning a scrapping program that would give drivers up to £6,000 ($7,600) in order to swap their diesel and gasoline-powered cars for electric vehicles.
According to The Telegraph, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is looking at July 6 as a potential date on which to announce this scrapping program, which is aimed at boosting the country’s EV manufacturing and sales.
As of right now, the only fully electric cars built in the UK are the Nissan Leaf (in Sunderland) and the Mini Electric (in Oxford).
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The British paper went on to say that government ministers hope that this scrapping program will also increase the sales of EVs from Renault, and encourage the French carmaker to build cars at Nissan’s Sunderland plant, using spare capacity.
Last month, it was reported that Nissan could also build the Renault Kadjar and Captur SUVs in Sunderland, which is the UK’s largest car assembly plant. The factory has seen its production fall from more than 500,000 units to 325,243 in the financial year to the end of March – down 22 percent compared to last year, as per Autonews Europe.
Meanwhile, a successful scrapping program could also boost Jaguar Land Rover’s business by reducing the cost of the Jaguar I-Pace EV crossover – built by Magna Steyr in Austria. JLR is also planning on building a fully electric version of the upcoming Jaguar XJ at its Castle Bromwich factory in England, before sending it out to battle the likes of the upcoming Mercedes EQS.
