THE BRITISH government will today unveil the world’s largest co-ordinated trial of environmentally friendly vehicles. The £25 million (€29.5 million) scheme, which is designed to accelerate the introduction of electric cars in the UK, will allow people to take part in long-term tests of everything from electric Minis and Smart city cars to sports cars and electric vans.
From the end of this year, about 340 of the vehicles will be available to qualifying members of the public in eight places across Britain, including Oxford, London, Glasgow, Birmingham and the northeast of England.
Power companies, regional development agencies and universities will also be involved in co-ordinating the experiments, building infrastructure such as charging points and analysing the way the cars are used.
About 22 per cent of the UK’s carbon emissions come from transport. According to a study for the department for transport, widespread adoption of electric vehicles capable of a range of 50km (31 miles) or more could halve road transport carbon emissions.– (Guardian)