Eco-car market boosted by Govenerment cash

1:41pm Tuesday 11th November 2008

The eco-motoring revolution is gathering pace.

Now Prime Minister Gordon Brown has given the official seal of approval for electric vehicles by endorsing a £100 million, five- year package to boost the market, more and more emissions-free motors will be silently gliding by on busy streets. The main habitat at the moment for these zero-carbondioxide, limited-mileage motors is Britain’s capital, London, but they will soon be gaining serious sales ground in all of the UK’s major cities.

Brown’s move to encourage greener motoring includes £20 million for councils up and down the country to buy and run electric vans, and £10 million to buy up to 100 new electric cars, which will be trialled by families around the UK.

One retailer of such vehicles, NICE (standing for “no internal combustion engine”), says this is the clearest indication yet the Government cknowledges the role all-electric motoring will play in the battle against climate change.

NICE co-founder, Evert Geursten, pointed out that, with running costs from a couple of pence per mile – that’s about 1/15th of the cost for a petrol or diesel car – and no annual road tax, electric vehicles offer exactly the sort of winning combination credit crunch-hit car buyers are wanting.

As for models, NICE’s best-seller is the two-seater MyCar, designed by Giugiaro of Italdesign and made in Hong Kong. It costs from £11,499 and as a 40- mile range from one charge, more than adequate for most urban users.

And, noting the green van plan for local authorities, the firm also sells the electric Mega-Truck range, priced from £9,595.

TOP SUPER-MINI: Ford has announced pricing for its Ka model, with the all-new super-mini starting at £7,995 on the road. Available from January 2009, the model will go on sale in four trim levels – Studio, Style, Style+ and the range-topping Zetec, the 1.3-litre diesel version of which will be the most expensive at £10,195. Ford has also announced a range of personalisation options will also be available starting from £300. All of the models will fall under the 120g/km CO2 emissions barrier.