Tesla still isn't in the UK Electric Car Grant. Here's why waiting won't fix that

By Priya Nair · Filed 3 August 2026 · Updated 5 August 2026

Neither the GBP 3,750 nor the GBP 1,500 band of the UK Electric Car Grant applies to a Tesla, and the reason has nothing to do with the price of the car.

As of 3 August 2026, Tesla remains excluded from both bands of the UK Electric Car Grant — Band 1 (GBP 3,750) and Band 2 (GBP 1,500). The position hasn't moved. Worth being precise about why, because it's easy to assume this is about price and it isn't.

The actual blocker

The scheme carries a manufacturer requirement: a maker needs a verified Science Based Target for emissions to qualify, and Tesla doesn't have one. That's a corporate-reporting hurdle, not a vehicle-spec one. It's why the Model Y — the UK's best-selling EV — doesn't qualify, and why the Model 3 is shut out too, despite otherwise meeting the grant's technical criteria.

What the manufacturer test actually asks for

"Has a Science Based Target" is a shorter phrase than the requirement deserves, and the detail explains why this isn't a box a carmaker ticks in an afternoon. The target has to cover the manufacturer's emissions across Scope 1, 2 and 3 — its own operations, its purchased energy, and its whole value chain — and it has to be validated by the Science Based Targets initiative, an outside body, not self-declared. The two bands ask for different stages of that process: Band 1 requires a fully validated target, while Band 2 accepts an approved commitment with interim milestones.

Two things follow. First, even the lower band needs a formal commitment lodged and approved, so there is no version of this Tesla clears by publishing a statement. Second, this isn't a rule aimed at one company: several manufacturers sit outside the scheme on the same test, and each of them is outside it for the same reason — the validation isn't there yet.

How you'd know before the guides do

Because the requirement is administered by two bodies that publish their own registers, you can check the position yourself rather than wait for a guide page to be updated:

• The SBTi's own target dashboard lists the companies with validated targets and those that have committed to setting them. A validation shows up there when it happens — that is the register the grant rule points at.
• The government's list of eligible vehicles is the authoritative statement of which cars the grant actually applies to. Eligibility is settled there, not in reporting about it.

If a page tells you a Tesla qualifies, those two registers are what would have to say so first. Neither did at the time of this update, which is why we say the position is unchanged rather than saying it is under review — "under review" would be a claim we cannot source.

Does this change your order timing?

Not on today's evidence. The position is explicitly unchanged as of this update, and nothing in the current reporting points to Tesla resolving the Science Based Targets requirement on any particular timeline. If you've been holding off ordering in the hope that a government grant might apply to a Tesla soon, there's no basis in what's known right now to expect that. The only saving that's actually available today, for a UK Model 3 or Model Y order, is the referral link's 650 free Supercharging miles — a separate mechanism from the government grant, and one that doesn't depend on manufacturer emissions reporting at all.

Don't conflate the two: a "Tesla government discount" is not a real, currently-available thing, in the same way a manually-typed voucher code isn't. The referral link is.

Background: what is and isn't a real Tesla saving in the UK.

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