A plan outlined today by transport secretary Geoff Hoon will award buyers of electric vehicles a payment of between £2000 and £5000 from 2011.
Assuming the Labour party remains in government, buyers of full electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles will receive the payment as part of a £250m scheme to encourage people to adopt more eco-friendly vehicles. The government also plans to make UK cities more accessible to electric cars by providing more on-street charging points, and has allocated £20m to help build an infrastructure more suited to electric cars.
Looking ahead to when the planned incentives will be introduced, Minister Geoff Hoon said, 'Electric cars will become quite normal, it won't be exceptional to own an electric vehicle and, without being unkind to existing electric vehicles, they won't be slightly odd.'
'There are significant numbers of people who are concerned about the impact of carbon on the environment. It's the responsibility of the government to help those people achieve our overall targets,' he said.
Business secretary Lord Mandleson and London Mayor Boris Johnson are also backing the scheme that could see London become the electric car capital of Europe. Johnson has already expressed his desire to introduce 100,000 electric cars to the city, and establish 25,000 charging points in the city’s streets and car parks.