Electric car tender deadline looms – despite doubts over scheme's future

The deadline for companies to bid to run the UK's planned electric vehicle incentive scheme will lapse next week, despite the fact the government has yet to give the scheme the go ahead.

BusinessGreen.com has learnt that tenders for the contracts to administer the Department for Transport's proposed £230m electric vehicle grant scheme, and £20m Plugged in Places recharging network project, are meant to be lodged with the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) by 12 July.

The successful bidders are expected to be announced in the autumn with both initiatives scheduled to get under way early next year.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport declined to name the companies that are preparing bids, but said the government had "received a pleasing number of expressions of interest" and would make an announcement on the successful bidders in due course.

However, both schemes are currently subject to the government's spending review and while it is widely expected that the Plugged in Places scheme and its plans to build electric car recharging networks in a number of cities will win a reprieve, fears are mounting that the high-profile electric vehicle incentive scheme could be cut.

Industry insiders said those firms bidding for the right to administer electric car incentives worth up to £5,000 per vehicle, were in the unenviable position of competing for a contract that could be scrapped or scaled back before the project is even launched.

"It's hard to imagine they will scrap it altogether, but they may cut its £230m budget," said one industry source. "They could scale it back in terms of the time the scheme runs or reduce the size of individual grants."

A spokesperson for one company that decided against applying for the contract to administer the scheme, said it would be a "massive operation" to distribute grants nationwide to both consumers and business customers. They added that developing the necessary framework would only be complicated by uncertainty over whether the scheme will survive.

However, they also argued that the government had little choice but to go ahead with the tendering process, explaining that the scale of the project meant the contract for administering it had to be awarded within the next few months if there is to be any chance of it being ready for launch next year – assuming, of course, that it gets the green light from the Treasury.