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Criteria for Plug-in Car Grant revealed

17/09/2010

The Government has taken another step closer to rolling out its £5,000 electric car grant scheme after announcing the criteria required for eligibility. A range of safety, emissions and performance standards are among the criteria that qualifying electric, plug-in hybrid or hydrogen-fuelled cars must meet. These include not exceeding a tailpipe CO2 emissions level of 75g/km, having a minimum top speed of 60mph, and meeting internationally-recognised crash standards. Meanwhile, manufacturers will have to provide a three-year or 60,000 mile vehicle warranty, along with a similar length battery and electric drive train warranty. The subsidy was confirmed in July, allaying fears that the Government would scrap Labour's plans to provide the support. Along with the Government publishing the eligibility criteria for the grant, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond yesterday awarded £24 million to develop the UK's low carbon vehicle capability. The six winning projects include engines for plug-in hybrid versions of vehicles from Nissan, Lotus and Jaguar Land Rover, along with a lightweight electric bin wagon and development of other technologies. Mr Hammond said: "I am determined to make this Government the greenest ever and transport will have a key role to play. But this will not be achieved by forcing people off the road - it's not the car that's the problem, it's the carbon. "While I am convinced that rail will be the future of long distance inter-urban journeys, we can't ignore the fact that 84% of journeys are made by car and there is no realistic prospect of displacing the private car for point to point complex journeys." The Government also set out its guidance to the 15 areas which have shown interest in the second round of bidding for the Plugged-in Places national recharging network. However, according to Virginian car manufacturer Edison2 - which won a US$5 million prize this week for making a vehicle which is half the weight of a Smart Car - a regular electric road car could still be a long way off due to a number of problems. The Edison2 blog, quoted in The Guardian, flags up a number of issues: "Batteries are heavy, big and costly ... cars get heavier, performance suffers and costs go up".

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