The British coalition government has underlined its commitment to electric vehicles by launching a campaign and announcing an investment of £9 million in more charging points.
Go Ultra Low is a £2.5 million campaign promoting the benefits of electric and plug-in hybrid cars.
Purchases, however, have remained low despite subsidies to help cover their cost of up to £5,000 for cars and £8,000 for vans. By the end of September, only 5,702 claims for the subsidy had been made, according to the Government. It has no immediate plans to stop the subsidies.
Last year, only 1.3% of all vehicles sold were alternative-fuel, including hybrids. A total of 2,512 pure electric cars sold and 3,584 plug-in hybrids.
According to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, the government intends to get people to switch to ultra-low emission vehicles by 2040.
Unusually, the five biggest manufacturers of electric and hybrid vehicles are participating together in the awareness campaign. They are BMW, Nissan, Renault, Toyota and Vauxhall, all of whom are rivals.
While the campaign was deemed vital to increase consumer knowledge, its publicity is not clear about the number of charging points in the UK.
One Go Ultra Low graphic showed the figure at 15,000, another at 7,000, while a statement from the Deputy Prime Minister put the number at “more than 6,000”.
But by the end of the year it is claimed that “the majority” of motorway service stations will have a rapid charger that can to top up batteries to about 80% full in 30 minutes.
