Clean Air Zone grant funding of £4.1m is now available for Bradford’s licenced taxi trade to help with running costs for fully electric hackney Carriage or Private Hire Vehicle.
Applicants can choose to purchase or take out a long-term lease (minimum 2 years lease at time the grant agreement is signed and returned) to be eligible for the grant.
There are currently 200,000 electric vehicle movements per month in Bradford district, these grants will support the Bradford taxi trade to also make the change to full electric vehicles.
The Bradford taxi trade has been extremely proactive in upgrading vehicles to Clean Air Zone standards, and has become the cleanest fleet in the country with 99% of the 4,800 licensed taxi and private hire trade meeting the Bradford CAZ standard.
Owners of electric vehicles can see savings in fuel costs as well as lower servicing and maintenance costs. These are on top of the driver health benefits of in-vehicle pollution reduction, respiratory health improvements and also a reduction in noise.
The applications process is now live for Bradford licensed vehicle proprietors. The grant will be increased for non-Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles from £6,000 over two years up to £10,000 over two years which brings it into line with the Hackney Carriage and Wheelchair Accessible Private Hire Vehicle EV grants.
Cllr Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Healthy People and Places, said: “We recognise that there is a desire from the taxi trade to switch to fully electric vehicles. We want to further support the taxi trade by offering up to £10,000 per vehicle in grant funding to assist proprietors with the running costs of a fully electric Hackney Carriage or Private Hire Vehicle. This is the highest grant of this type in the UK.”
More information from the Clean Air Zone team on 01274 435533
