Check Your Own Tesla Order Against the £3,750 Grant: Both Gates

We wrote generally about why Tesla misses the Electric Car Grant in our earlier note this April. Stating the rule is one thing; running the check against a live configuration is another, and it is what most readers actually need. Here is that check, in the order that saves the most time — you can run it on your own configuration in a few minutes.

Why run the check rather than quote the rule

“Most Teslas miss the £37,000 cap” is true and unhelpful, because it doesn't tell you about your build. A mid-spec Model 3 configured on tesla.com/en_gb makes a concrete test case, and the same two steps work whatever you have configured.

Gate one: the price cap

A mid-spec Model 3 — nothing stripped down — prices above £37,000. That alone rules it out of both the Band 1 (£3,750) and Band 2 (£1,500) tiers of the 2026 Electric Car Grant. Nothing surprising there — it's what our own eligibility page already says of most UK Tesla configurations.

Gate two: the manufacturer list

The second gate is the one most readers never reach, because the price answer already looks conclusive: guidance covered by Honest John points to a manufacturer-level requirement — verified Science Based Targets — sitting above the price cap entirely. Check it against gov.uk's own grant guidance rather than a single secondary source: as reported, Tesla isn't currently on the approved list. Which means a configuration priced under £37,000 would still have failed this second, separate test.

Why running both matters, not just the first

It is tempting to treat “my car is too expensive” as the whole story and stop. Running the manufacturer check as well is what lets you answer the obvious follow-up: would a cheaper build have qualified? For a Tesla today, no — a Standard trim with fewer options would still be caught by the manufacturer gate. Knowing that saves you re-configuring a car downward for a grant it was never going to attract.

Two things worth checking while both pages are open

With the Tesla UK incentives page and gov.uk both open, two figures are worth confirming because they apply regardless of the grant result. First, that a referral link is attached and shows in the order summary, which is what earns the 650 free Supercharging miles on delivery. Second, for context on what those miles are worth: the UK Supercharger network stood at 2,747 chargers as of end May 2026, with typical per-kWh pricing reported in the 25–40p range at that time.

The home-charger grant: a separate scheme with separate rules

Worth checking separately: the EV Chargepoint Grant, for home-charger installations, reported at roughly £350 and risen to £500 from 1 April 2026. Unlike the Electric Car Grant it is not gated by manufacturer or car price — its conditions are about your property and tenure instead, which is why renters in flats and rental properties are a core audience for it. It is a genuinely different scheme, so a “no” on the car grant tells you nothing about this one. Check its own eligibility rules rather than assuming either answer carries across.

Try it yourself, in the same order

If you're configuring a Tesla, the sequence worth following is: check your configured price against the current £37,000 cap on gov.uk, separately confirm whether your car's manufacturer sits on the approved list that same page links to, and then — regardless of either result — open your referral link before you configure, since that benefit doesn't depend on either gate. Do the home-charger grant check separately if it applies to your housing situation.

The honest bottom line

My own configuration failed both Electric Car Grant gates, and I don't expect that to surprise most Tesla buyers reading this. What surprised me, doing the check properly rather than repeating the headline, was how little the price gate mattered on its own — the manufacturer gate would have blocked me either way. I'll re-run this check and update the date here if Tesla's manufacturer status or my own order changes.

← 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.