Electric Car: Should the UK Government Fund Manufacturers?

Recently, the British government announced that it planned to buy a number of electric cars and vans for a new pilot scheme to see how such vehicles cope on Britain’s roads. The trials will take place in three cities, at a cost of £100m.

While environmentalists agree cash urgently needs to be pumped into research and development, some want to know why tax income is being used to support vehicle manufacturers in what they say they are already committed to doing, when regulation could have been used to force both manufacturers and retailers to deliver on their 1998 promise to cut carbon emissions from cars. The trial seems like a subsidy to an already rich industry, when alternative and more innovative forms of city transport, like Segways, hybrids and eco-transport, receive no such support package.

Alternative transport needs an economic boost

Of course, with the current economic downturn, it’s always good to know that the government is not taking its eye off the environmental ball. But is a trial scheme the best way to proceed?

New car sales in the UK have dropped by a quarter on 2007 rates, and persuading consumers to invest in vehicles that may not have a second-hand value, and for which it may be difficult to obtain credit, is going to be an even bigger task than getting them to buy into current technology – if nobody is buying new cars, why would they buy new electric cars that may not have the infrastructure to support their use?

Perhaps the government, instead of giving money to the problem – the car manufacturers – should have given it to the solution: offering a zero interest loan to new car buyers in its three trial cities so that they could buy electric vehicles. That way, in the classic economic model, a market could be created that might grow to become a movement. But when the money is in the closed loop of government subsidy to multinational industry, the only thing that grows is the salaries of corporate directors.

Photograph: Kay Sexton

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