The British government has given the electric vehicle (EV) sector a major nod of approval by allowing motorists and car insurance policy holders who buy an electric vehicle to drive tax-free until 2020. The policy is a crucial aspect of the government’s attempts to ditch the internal combustion engine by 2050 and is supported by a £5,000 grant towards the purchase of an electric car.
Growth in the UK EV market is somewhat slow with just 4,000 motorists making the switch despite the growing prominence of top of the range models like the Nissan Leaf and other comparable vehicles offered by BMW, Toyota and Renault. Ministers have therefore decided to implement plans for tax-free motoring for EV owners in order to try and quicken the pace of the uptake along with a range of measures to help combat “range anxiety” – the far that electric cars may be unable to travel further than 100 miles on a single charge. The difficulty in finding charging points has also not helped the industry.
The government is also intending to invest £500 in incentives to develop Ultra Low Emission Vehicle (ULEV) technology as it believes this will help Britain to attain a competitive edge in this sector as it becomes increasingly more important over forthcoming decades.
A £10 million competition to develop a long life battery will also be launched and Britain will see a “hydrogen highway” network of hydrogen refuelling stations geared towards vehicles with fuel cells.
“We have moved up a gear” said Norman Baker MP, the Transport Minister. “Cars in the future will be as different as todays are from a mark one Cortina. Our vision is by 2050 almost every car and van will be an ultra-low emission vehicle with the UK at the forefront of their design, development and manufacture.”
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