Friday, May 13, 2011

Electric Car Update

According to The Guardian, only 534 electric vehicles were registered to the so-called plug-in car grant during the first quarter of 2011. That's compared to the Government's projection of 8000. With petrol prices currently plateaued out, the electric car is not going to become a compelling ownership proposition anytime soon. Meanwhile, to solve the fact that the UK is a 'charging station desert', the Government will need to spend a fortune in taxpayers' cash subsidizing the build-out of charging infrastructure to support an electric car fleet that doesn't exist.

It could instead spend the money building cycling infrastructure for bikes that already exist and are gathering rust in garages up and down the country because their owners are too scared to ride them in UK traffic conditions. They'd recover the investment in short order, because we know cycling investment pays back threefold in economic benefits related to better public health, lower congestion, and environmental improvements.

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