Call for better electric vehicles scrappage scheme

Francesca Guyett wants the government to provide more support for scrapping electric vehicles

Jersey's government needs a proper plan for the scrapping of hybrid vehicles, according to an owner told she would have to pay to dispose of hers.

Francesca Guyett said she was told there would be a charge, even though her hybrid car stopped working and "wasn't worth £100".

She said the Government of Jersey needed to have a plan to recycle electric vehicles (EVs), given the government had been financially helping people to purchase electric vehicles. The scheme closed at the end of 2024.

Infrastructure Minister Constable Andy Jehan said officers were working with waste contractors to ensure they were trained and had suitable facilities for the safe de-pollution of electric vehicles.

Ms Guyett said she found only one company on the island that could scrap the vehicle.

She said: "When I contacted them, they said they were unable to take it unless I paid scrappage costs as the Government of Jersey had withdrawn any budget for disposing of hybrid or battery-operated vehicles.

"That was really challenging because my car was quite a big vehicle... there was really no support from the government."

Currently, owners of petrol and diesel vehicles to be scrapped are paid a certain amount per tonne, whereas the owners of electric and hybrid vehicles are being advised to make arrangements to have them shipped off island.

Andy Jehan said there were "not significant numbers of end-of-life electric vehicles in the island currently awaiting disposal"

The number of electric, hybrid electric, electric petrol and electric diesel registered is 8,139 out of a total of about 128,000.

Jehan said those wanting to dispose of end-of-life vehicles were advised to contact the manufacturer through the on-island dealers.

He said: "There are not significant numbers of end-of-life electric vehicles in the island currently awaiting disposal.

"Officers are working with waste contractors locally to ensure that they are trained and have suitable facilities for the safe depollution of electric vehicles on the island."

Hilary Jeune says the government is working on a scrapping scheme for electric vehicles

Ms Guyett said she did not think the government had proper plans in place for EVs.

She said: "They are new, they are not going to be a problem, we don't need to think about end-of-life care.

"Cars get written off due to accidents all the time and, if we don't have a treatment strategy for them, what are we supposed to do?"

Deputy Hilary Jeune said she believed the government was working on a scheme to help islanders recycle EVs.

She said: "The government are working with the UK to set up a scheme to be able to take the cars from Jersey to the UK and dispose of them that way - it hasn't been set up completely yet but there is work under way.

"At the moment, we haven't had that many EVs that have had to be scrapped. It's a very small amount... It's growing but, because we are at the moment at the beginning of our EV schemes in Jersey, we're not there yet."

Ms Guyett said it was "sheer luck" that she managed to find someone willing to ship her car to the UK free of charge.

She said: "That took several weeks... and, in the meantime, because we live on an estate where there's limited parking, we were really struggling with neighbours being a bit frustrated.

"I wanted to buy a full electric vehicle for my next car.

"This whole experience has made it that I don't want to even touch a hybrid because I can't deal with having the stress and the uncertainty that, if something happened, I would be back where I started."