As usual, with any announcement form this spin-driven Government, you have to look at the small print. So it is with electric cars:
No electric car that is available now, or for at least the next two years, will qualify for government grants of up to £5,000 announced yesterday.
Even the handful of concept cars currently being tested may be ineligible because ministers insist that they will only subsidise cars with “mass market appeal”, in terms of range and speed.
The RAC Foundation questioned the effectiveness of the grants and said there could be greater environmental benefits from encouraging more efficient petrol and diesel engines. A spokesman said: “Green initiatives should not be introduced for the sake of grabbing headlines.”
Yet again, more spin than substance.
A word of warning. Don’t pass judgement on the Budget until the small print has been analysed.
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A letter in the (exTory)Graph this morning points out that a heater in any of these electric jobs will flatten the battery before you can say 'holier than thou'.
ReplyDeleteTherefore they are unlikely to appeal to anybody else other than the Guardianistas and the hair shirt/open sandals brigade.