Buyers of electric cars could receive a £2,000 allowance towards their purchase, under plans Gordon Brown announced yesterday to make Britain a leading manufacturer of green cars.
In an interview yesterday, the prime minister said that the next budget due to be revealed on March 22, will outline a future for the British economy after the recession, focusing on the role of environmental technologies, the Financial Times reports.
The government is considering establishing a state-funded cash incentive to consumers to boost flagging car sales, such an incentive could be tied specifically to the purchase of alternative fuelled vehicles or the cleanest conventionally fuelled cars.
The prime minister also said yesterday there would be a new roadside network of charging points to support the use of electric vehicles and incentives for environmentally friendly carmakers.
Trials of electric cars could take place in two or three cities in the next year while ministers are keen to see such cars produced in the UK and hope that either Nissan or General Motors would do so.
This week Nissan won a €400m (£362m) loan for the research and development of lower-emission vehicles at its operations in the UK and Spain.
GM has also raised the possibility of bringing production of its plug-in Vauxhall Ampera to its plant in Ellesmere Port.
Last July, the PM promised that all cars sold in Britain would be hybrid or electric by 2020. But there has been a debate within government about whether to give subsidies to manufacturers of electric cars or to consumers who buy them.
Paul Everitt, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) told the publication: “As an industry we recognise that the future is low-carbon, but we need to see coherency in terms of strategy so we can present it to the manufacturers and encourage them to develop their businesses in the UK and invest more in UK activities,” he said. “To do that, they need a complete commitment and strategy from government.”
Read the full article here: FT.com
