UK government unveils £5,000 electric car incentive program
The UK government has announced a £250 million incentive program designed to get more plug-in and electric vehicles on British roads. The heart of the program is rebates of up to £5,000 for purchases of full electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. This could be good news for companies like Mitsubishi, Nissan and General Motors. The Japanese automakers are planning to introduce battery electric cars over the next two years and General Motors plans to launch the Vauxhall Ampera (a rebadged Chevy Volt) in 2011. The program is aimed primarily at next-generation full-function electric vehicles like the Ampera and Mitsubishi iMiEV rather than the existing crop of low speed vehicles like the Indian-made G-Wiz.
In addition to subsidizing car purchases, the government wants to make life a little easier for EV drivers by putting in more public charging outlets. £20 million of the project is set aside for building out the country's infrastructure of charge points. Thanks to Brother_Will for the Tip!
Gallery: Vauxhall Ampera
[Source: BBC, Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Stan Wellaway 6:10PM (4/16/2009)
Cynics will notice that the car-subsidy scheme doesn't actually kick in until 2011 - by when the current government is quite widely expected to be out of office. So they get all the immediate green-cred publicity - but the next government pays the bills (or dares to risk appearing ungreen by cancelling it).
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