You grill the Government - Where have all the grants gone?

Q: Why have the Powershift grants dried up? A colleague of mine bought a Toyota Prius with a Government grant, but when I inquired there was no money available. Will the Government provide grants to make cars running on clean fuels affordable?
Alexandra Higgins, London

SL: The Powershift grant programme was intended to get people to start to consider choosing cleaner vehicles. The motor industry is now offering a much wider range of fuel efficient, low CO2 emitting cars, with many more in the pipeline, that make good sense to the consumer with or without grants.

The grant programme has now ended, and the Government is considering how we might best promote clean motoring in the future.

Consumers can already save money by choosing the most environmentally friendly vehicles. To help them make informed choices, the Government launched a labelling scheme to show the environmental impacts of different models, as well as how much they can expect to pay in fuel, and whether they qualify for a reduction in Vehicle Excise Duty.

We are considering a range of possible new initiatives to ensure we encourage cleaner motoring in the most efficient way.