BRITAIN SET TO BECOME ELECTRIC CAR CAPITAL OF EUROPE

Electric cars could be given away for free as part of a new government initiative. Gordon Brown unveiled his plans for the future of Britain’s motor industry at last week’s Motor Show. The idea is that electric cars will be given away free or at a heavily subsidised rate. At the same time drivers will be offered contracts similar to current mobile phone contracts by companies who will supply the electricity to run them. Mr Brown has since met with representatives from General Motors to discuss the mass production of electric vehicles on a large scale, at their Ellesmere Port plant. If plans go ahead, General Motors are hoping to strike a deal with Mr Brown where they would manufacture enough vehicles in Briain to supply the whole of Europe, creating 500 jobs, in return for Mr Brown creating thousands of new recharging points up and down the country. The new initiative would make Britain the electric car capital of Europe.

Gordon Brown would like to see more electric cars on the road to cut pollution and reduce our impact on the environment. He is expecting the majority of vehicles on Britain's roads to be either hybrid or electric by 2020. However there is still a lot more work to be done before Mr Brown’s plans can come to fruition. The majority of electric vehicles currently available don’t go very fast. To reduce our impact on the environment the electricity used to power the cars would need to come from a nuclear or renewable energy source and not from fossil fuels. Also electric cars can only be used for short journeys as their batteries generally need to be recharged after a couple of hours. One of the main problems is finding recharging points to do this. Ideally in the future Gordon Brown hopes to see these up and down the country and it may be just as simple as popping into a local garage and exchanging a used electric battery pack for a new one. However currently recharging points are few and far between, with the majority being found in and around London. Mr Brown hopes to correct this by creating thousands of new recharging points up and down the country. In addition vacuum cleaner inventor James Dyson’s current project is creating a new faster electric car powered by solar panels. Sounds exciting! Meanwhile Sussex police are currently trialling an electric police car in Brighton and Hove. With a top speed of 30 miles per hour, the vehicle bears a close resemblance to a golf buggy and looks like it would be more at home on a golf course than on Britain’s roads. However Sussex police are confident that the vehicle will play an important role in community policing, helping officers to navigate their way through built up areas of the towns. With petrol prices rising at an alarming rate, I’m sure we’ll be seeing more and more electric cars on our roads in the future, I might even be driving one myself one day.