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UK to spend £250M on electric car incentives
April 17, 2009 - by Emma Ritch, Cleantech Group
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The UK government today unveiled a new, £250 million program to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles and charging stations.
Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon announced incentives of up to £5,000 ($7,400) for consumers who buy electric cars. Hoon said the government wanted to see a critical mass of electric car drivers before the government decides on the infrastructure of a charging network.
About 22 percent of the UK's carbon emissions come from vehicles, including 13 percent from private cars. The government plans to ask cities to become showrooms for about 200 different electric vehicles, letting consumers get hands-on experience.
London Mayor Boris Johnson has announced a goal to secure government funds to pay for 25,000 charging stations in the city to support 100,000 electric vehicles.
The UK is falling in line with a number of other countries already promoting electric vehicles, including Germany, Denmark, Australia, Israel, China and the U.S. (see China taps Renault-Nissan for electric car pilot in 2011, Bay Area to get infrastructure for electric vehicles and Think says U.S. electric car market is overtaking Europe).
Earlier this month, Japan's government said it was considering subsidies of up to ¥300,000 yen (USD $3,000) on hybrid cars and other cleantech vehicles (see Japan considers subsidizing hybrids).
Automakers are banking on consumer enthusiasm. Toyota announced late last month it will introduce a Yaris hybrid to compete with the Honda Insight in Japan and the U.S. (see Toyota plans to take on Honda with low-cost hybrid for 2011).
Copyright © 2009 Cleantech Group LLC. All rights reserved, including right of redistribution.
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Comments
Fueling Electric Cars
Submitted on April 27th, 2009 by Kurt Koehler (not verified)The energy density for battaries is not sufficient to power a car 300 miles per tank load like gasoline does. For an electric car, why not use a fuel cell powered by hydrogen generated from aluminum and water? The energy density is less for hydrogen but the efficiency of a fuel cell completely compensates for this fact. Hydrogen from aluminum burns clean of course and is renewable unlike hydrogen from natural gas. The bauxite depostis needed for aluminum production are located in friendly countries. After the reaction, the aluminum becomes alumina which can be recharged back into aluminum using a 100 year old industry standard practice. It requires large amounts of electricity to recharge but 70% of the world's alumina is converted using hydroelectric or geothermal sources. This makes the entire process clean and renewable. Just google AlGalCo for more information.
Hydrogen from Aluminum
Submitted on April 28th, 2009 by Unregistered user (not verified)Because the round trip efficiency is dire - about 50% of the energy from Al appears as H2, about 50% of the H2 turns into power and the alumina recharge is about 33% efficient, all up electricity to electricity efficiency is about 8%, while a Li-Ion battery is well over 80% - can we really afford to use 10x the energy of the Li-Ion solution? Zn-Air batteries are a better bet, cutting out the hydrogen step and the (currently ruinously expensive) fuel cell.
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