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

  • Politicisation of US transportation funding
    October 13, 2015
    Andrew Bardin Williams looks at how a political stalemate and a series of short-term fixes is undermining America’s highway funding and curtailing long-term planning. It was a week before the deadline to renew funding for the Highway Trust Fund, and the clock was ticking.
  • Are road user charging systems too complicated?
    February 27, 2012
    At any conference or exhibition, it tends to be the ad libs and asides, the departures from the scripted or official lines, which are the most telling. In mid-February, ITS-UK's Road User Charging Interest Group met in London. The event was no exception to that statement. Keith Mortimer, the Group's chairman, and his colleagues put together one of the better programmes on charging and tolling that I've seen in recent years. Sadly, however, the very positive presentations on deployments and technological pro
  • Oxford University develops self-driving car
    February 18, 2013
    Oxford University scientists have developed a self-driving car system that can be installed in existing cars and can cope with snow, rain and other weather conditions. Developed by a team led by Professor Paul Newman at Oxford University, the new system has been installed in a Nissan Leaf electric car and tested on private roads around the university. The car will halt for pedestrians, and could take over the tedious parts of driving such as negotiating traffic jams or regular commutes. The car alerts the
  • TfL to deploy 20 hydrogen buses in London
    May 20, 2019
    Transport for London (TfL) is to deploy 20 hydrogen double decker buses in London next year in a bid to improve air quality in the UK capital.