Do Teslas Qualify for the £3,750 Electric Car Grant? The £37k Catch

One of the most common questions we get: can I combine a referral code with the £3,750 Electric Car Grant? For most Tesla buyers the surprising answer is no — and it's not because of the referral.

The grant has a £37,000 cap

The 2026 Electric Car Grant offers up to £3,750 (Band 1) or £1,500 (Band 2), applied automatically at the point of sale — but only for new EVs priced under £37,000. Most Teslas start above that threshold, so they simply don't qualify for the grant in the first place.

So there's usually nothing to stack

If the car doesn't qualify for the grant, the “can I stack it with a referral?” question is moot. The referral benefit — 650 free Supercharging miles — applies regardless of price, so you get that either way.

Always check current prices

Prices and grant bands change. Before assuming, check the live configured price on tesla.com/en_gb against the £37,000 cap on gov.uk. Our UK incentives section walks through the comparison.

Correction: the price cap is not why a Tesla misses out

An earlier version of this page implied that Teslas fail the grant because they cost more than £37,000. That is incomplete in a way that matters, because it suggests a cheaper Tesla would qualify. It would not.

The Electric Car Grant has two gates, and they are assessed by different bodies. The Vehicle Certification Agency checks the technical criteria — this is where the £37,000 recommended-retail-price limit sits. The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles checks the environmental criteria, and that gate applies to the manufacturer, not the car: the company building the vehicle must hold a Science Based Target verified by the Science Based Targets initiative.

Tesla does not hold one. So a Tesla is outside the scheme on the environmental gate regardless of price, trim, or configuration. A hypothetical £30,000 Tesla would still receive nothing, and no amount of watching the configurator will change that. Tesla is not alone here — Smart, MG, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Jeep, Abarth and Polestar are also outside the scheme on the same criterion.

Why a company that only builds EVs fails an EV grant's green test

This reads like an error the first time you meet it, so it is worth explaining rather than leaving as a curiosity. The SBTi requirement is about a company's verified decarbonisation targets across its business, not about how clean its cars are. Its framework was designed with manufacturers that still sell combustion engines in mind, and it does not distinguish them from firms that build electric vehicles only.

Tesla and Polestar have both indicated they support the SBTi while not being signed up to it, on the basis that targets built around shifting a mixed fleet map poorly onto a business that never had one. Whether you find that convincing is beside the point for a buyer: the grant's rule is signed-up-or-not, and both are on the wrong side of it.

The practical upshot is that this is a corporate decision, not a market condition. A price cap is something you can plan around by choosing a cheaper trim, and something that can be crossed as prices move. A missing corporate certification cannot be worked around by any buyer, and would change only if Tesla chose to seek verification. That distinction is the reason this correction matters more than it might look.

What this actually leaves a UK buyer

Being precise about the two gates makes the stacking question simpler, not more complicated:

• The grant: £3,750 (Band 1) or £1,500 (Band 2) from a £650 million scheme, applied at the point of sale — and not available on a Tesla at any price while the SBTi gate stands.
• The referral: 650 free Supercharging miles, which depends on neither gate. It is unaffected by price and unaffected by manufacturer certification, so it is what you get either way.
• The bigger lever, still: how the car is financed. For anyone with access to salary sacrifice, that decision is worth multiples of both items above, and it is the one most grant-hunting buyers have not priced.

So the honest framing is not "check whether your Tesla sneaks under £37,000". It is that this particular grant is closed to Teslas for a reason no configuration choice touches — and that the two things still worth your attention are the finance route and the referral. Confirm the current scheme rules on gov.uk before you rely on any of this; the criteria and the eligible-model list are both revised as brands join or leave.

← Get a UK referral code

Disclosure: the links above are referral links — using one credits the owner with Tesla Credits at no cost to you, and gives you the buyer benefit. The Emerald Mile is an independent guide and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Tesla, Inc. “Tesla” and “Supercharger” are trademarks of Tesla, Inc., used here nominatively.