The most common acronyms and their meaning are as follows:
BEV: Battery electric vehicles which use no petrol and run solely on the charge of electricity through batteries.
PHEV: Plug-in hybrid vehicles which use an electric motor foremost but have the ability to use a petrol or other engine to supplement the battery and some cases can also assist driving the wheels.
FCEV: Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles, in which energy stored is stored typically as compressed hydrogen in a tank and is converted to electricity by the fuel cell which performs the same function as a battery in BEV providing power for the electric motors to drive the wheels. A FCEV has a tailpipe, but it only emits warm air and water vapor.
HEV: Non-plug-in hybrid vehicles which run on both an internal combustion engine and a battery, but the difference is you cannot charge HEVS; they use energy stored in the battery from what is called ‘regenerative braking’. These are not eligible for the EV Discount .
ZLEV or EV: Stands for zero and low emission vehicles, a catch-all for BEVs, PHEVs and FCEVs.
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