Building on the launch of the Government’s eco-friendly car grants available from 1 January 2011, Eric Pickles is urging councils to promote and establish electric vehicle charging points in new developments.
This is part of the Government’s £20m scheme towards the installation of plug in points in major cities across the UK and a larger budget of £300m towards subsidies until 2015.
As Decentralisation Minister Greg Clark stated, there is no point having an electric car if there is nowhere to charge it, the city wide charging point will, in his words, “allow 2011 to be the year when electric motoring is made easy”. Of course motorists, if the scheme is popular, will have to get used to paying for electricity as opposed to petrol for their cars.
With a review of the plug-in car grant happening in 2012, only time will tell if Pickles’ and Clark’s optimism on the take up for the electric car will bear fruit.