As many as a fifth of
Britain's 34 million motorists are planning to buy an electric car
within the next five years or would consider doing so.
A GfK NOP survey for the RAC Foundation suggests 6.75 million drivers
are thinking about buying a vehicle powered solely by batteries.
The poll results should be welcome news for the Department for Transport
which last month announced an incentive scheme that would see grants of
up to £5,000 being offered to purchasers of electric powered cars from
2011.
But the plans are set to backfire.
The RAC Foundation has discovered that by the Government's own reckoning
electric vehicles won't be available on the mass market until at least
2017, leaving millions of potential buyers frustrated.
Commenting on the findings, the director of the RAC Foundation Professor
Stephen Glaister said: "What the Government is in danger of doing is
putting the cart before the horse. It is actively promoting the purchase
of electric vehicles long before there is any chance of manufacturers
making them widely available."
"It has gone out of its way to encourage people to make green choices,
yet these choices are not yet realistic."
"Even by the Government's own analysis, this form of
environmentally-friendly transport will not be on the mass market for
another eight years - and even that assumes a major breakthrough in
battery technology in the meantime."
"Ministers' thinking on green technology is all over the place. They
talk of incentives of up to £5,000 for prospective buyers of electric
cars from 2011. Yet at that stage there will be almost nothing in the
showroom for people to purchase."
"What's more, the same announcement talked of a mere £20 million being
spent on a national charging infrastructure, but only last week the
Mayor of London acknowledged that at least £60 million would be needed
to provide such a network in the capital alone."
"And all this comes even before you ask how the electricity to power
these phantom vehicles will be produced - for the next decade (before
new nuclear power stations are built for example) the answer will almost
certainly be by burning fossil fuels."
"The RAC Foundation fully supports the introduction of green vehicles.
But electric cars are not the short-term solution. What the Government
should be doing is improving the road network and encouraging
manufacturers to refine existing technology. That means increasing road
capacity to cut congestion and CO2 emissions; focussing on
producing leaner petrol and diesel engines; and making smaller and
lighter cars."
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