UK drivers with plug in vehicles will benefit from a GBP37m funding package for home and on-street charging and for new charge points at railway stations.
Transport secretary [minister] Patrick McLoughlin announced the subsidy for homes and businesses which fit plug-in points for the cars while visiting Sunderland where Nissan’s plant will soon start building the Leaf EV and its battery packs for Europe.
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Hospitals, police and public bodies may have the full price paid.
The Daily Mail noted the news came amid fears that battery-powered cars are losing their spark with drivers.
Only 3,200 have sold here in the UK in last two years – less than 1% of the total market – despite ‘green’ discounts of GBP5,000 per car.
In 2012 just 2,237 electric cars were sold and registered for the ‘plug-in car grant’, though that was double the figure of 1,052 in 2011 and a big increase on the 111 in 2010, the paper said.
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By GlobalDataMcLoughlin said he wanted Britain to be a world leader in the electric car industry.
He rejected criticisms that electric sales were poor because they were only of use in towns, and insisted manufacturers would not be making them if there were not a market for them: “They are fantastic cars.”
The coalition government will provide 75% of the cost of installing new charge points. This can be claimed by people installing chargepoints where they live; local authorities installing rapid charge points to facilitate longer journeys, or providing on-street charging on request from residents who have or have ordered plug in vehicles; and train operators installing new charge points at railway stations.
The GBP37m funding for the package comes from the government’s GBP400m commitment to increase the uptake of ultra low emission vehicles and is available until April 2015.
The full package includes: up to GBP13.5m for a 75% grant for homeowners in the United Kingdom wishing to have a domestic chargepoint installed; an GBP11m fund for local authorities in England to install on-street charging for residents who have or have ordered a plug in vehicle but do not have off-street parking. Authorities can apply for up to 75% of the cost of installing a chargepoint; provide up to 75% of the cost of installing rapid chargepoints in their areas around the strategic road network; up to GBP9m available to fund the installation of chargepoints at railway stations; up to GBP3m to support the installation of chargepoints on the government and wider public estate by April 2015; a commitment to review government buying standards (mandatory for central Government departments) to lower the fleet average CO2/km of new cars and encourage the uptake of plug in vehicles in central government.
The package also includes a previously-announced GBP280k of funding to expand the Energy Saving Trust’s Plugged-in Fleets initiative in England to help a further 100 public and private sector fleets to understand and identify where ultra low emission vehicles could work for them.
The move has pleased Nissan.
Manufacturing chief John Martin said: “We are at a crossroads in personal mobility. Nissan is proudly pioneering zero emission technology through our UK operations and we are delighted that the UK government is showing it shares our commitment to the transport of the future.
“Electric vehicles become a way of life if the charging infrastructure is in place and governments are committed to helping drivers to make the switch. We know this from the experiences of Leaf drivers in countries like Norway where a network of charge points is already in place.”
