Skip to main content

UK drive to be world leader in electric cars

UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has announced that government will invest more than US$15 million to boost the number of charging points for electric cars. Major car manufacturers BMW, Nissan, Renault, Toyota and Vauxhall are all backing the Go Ultra Low campaign in a ground breaking partnership with government to debunk common myths and misconceptions that put drivers off switching to electric or hybrid cars, such as cost and how far the vehicles can travel before being recharged. Electric car o
January 31, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has announced that government will invest more than US$15 million to boost the number of charging points for electric cars.

Major car manufacturers 1731 BMW, 838 Nissan, 2453 Renault, 1686 Toyota and 4231 Vauxhall are all backing the Go Ultra Low campaign in a ground breaking partnership with government to debunk common myths and misconceptions that put drivers off switching to electric or hybrid cars, such as cost and how far the vehicles can travel before being recharged.

Electric car owners do not have to pay car tax or congestion charges and many charge points are free to use. The cars cost from just 2 pence (US$3) a mile, which means a family that drives an electric vehicle 10,000 miles in a year would save around US$1,600 on fuel costs each year.

There are already more charging points than filling stations in London, but to make driving an electric car possible for everyone, the US$15 million funding will be used to create hundreds more charging points across the country, including 140 new rapid charge points which can charge an electric car in less than half an hour. This will cement the UK’s position as one of the best for electric vehicle recharging networks in Europe.

Announcing the funding, Clegg 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 US$15 million to boost charge points 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.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • New York launches electric taxi pilot
    April 23, 2013
    To celebrate Earth Day, Nissan and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg have launched a new electric vehicle taxi pilot with the Nissan Leaf, putting six Leaf taxis into service to help Nissan, the city, the taxi industry and the public understand how zero emission vehicles can be integrated into future taxi fleets. As part of the pilot, Nissan and partners in New York City will also install several CHAdeMO-based DC quick chargers, which will enable drivers to re-charge their electric taxis quickly during
  • Government targets ‘too conservative’ as 1 in 5 plan to embrace electric cars
    July 20, 2017
    Electric vehicle uptake may increase over the next few years to levels far above UK Government targets. In research undertaken by Baringa Partners, nearly a fifth of people said they would consider buying an electric vehicle for their next car, double the Government goal for electric cars to make up nine per cent of the fleet by 2020. However, concerns over purchase price and range mean nearly a third of people believe electric cars will never overtake petrol and diesel vehicles. Baringa is urging the Gover
  • Safe-driver training reduces costs, increases safety
    February 3, 2012
    Hermes, one of Europe's leading home delivery specialists, and part of the Otto group's European logistics division, estimates that introducing a range of safe-driving measures in its UK operations have contributed to a US$1.5 million cost saving to the business in the 12 months to April 2010.
  • Oregon trials road user charging
    February 11, 2013
    In Oregon, gas-tax money funds about 58 per cent of the budget used to take care of the state’s roads. As vehicles become more fuel efficient, the gas tax, which is 30 cents a gallon in Oregon and 37 cents in Washington, will generate less and less money. “If we’re using gasoline and diesel sales to fund our transportation system, we’re going to be in big trouble,” said Patrick Cooney of the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). Recognizing the problem early, Oregon started studying alternatives to th