Nick Clegg: electric cars ‘most promising’ of British green industries

The deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has announced £9.3m worth of funding for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, along with an industry campaign to promote the benefits of emissions-free transport.

The government is determined to boost electric vehicle sales through a new strategy, delivered in partnership with manufacturers, by increasing the number of chargepoints across the UK.

Clegg made the announcement on Thursday, saying that the Department for Transport and Office for Low Emission Vehicles will be working with manufacturers, including BMW, Toyota and Vauxhall, to promote the reduced cost of using electric vehicles.

He said, “Electric cars are one of the most promising of our green industries and we want to secure the UK’s position as a global leader in both the production and adoption of these vehicles.

“The extremely low running costs of electric cars help drivers save money and we are allocating more than £9m to boost chargepoints across the country to help drivers to go green.

“This means we can lower UK emissions and create high-tech engineering and manufacturing jobs to boost our economy.”

Chargepoints are expected to be installed on some government premises, including military bases, for use by staff and visitors.

Some fully electric vehicles have a range of up to 100 miles, whilst hybrid vehicles are capable of travelling up to 700 miles on one tank – beating any conventional car.

Nissan recently announced that its new London black cab would be fully electric by 2015.

Further reading:

After a century of waiting for the future, is now the dawn of the electric car?

Ecotricity and Volkswagen unite to offer 100% renewable travel

Should petrol and diesel cars be banned?

Government prepares for major rollout of electric car chargepoints

The truth behind environmental cars