News story

Moore welcomes drive to cut emissions

Michael Moore today welcomed the announcement that a Scottish Consortium has been successful in the second round of bidding for a share of a £20m fund to install local charging points for electric cars.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Michael Moore today welcomed the announcement that a Scottish Consortium has been successful in the second round of bidding for a share of a £20m fund to install local charging points for electric cars.

Mr Moore said:

“Today’s announcement that motorists will be able to make a choice from at least nine vehicles further confirms the UK as a global front runner in ultra-low emission cars and a leader in the development of hi-tech green manufacturing.

“Ultra-low emission cars with mass appeal used to be a pipe dream, but now they are set to become reality giving the convenience of the car without the pollution that goes with a normal car.

“It also shows that we are following through on our coalition commitment to support green growth and build a new and more responsible economic model and contribute towards our compliance with European Air Quality Targets.”

The consortia, with Transport Scotland as the lead partner, has been awarded £1.45m towards a total cost of £3.1m to roll out 375 charge points across central Scotland - 60 Home charge points, 285 public and 30 workplace.

The announcement by the Coalition Government firmly places the UK into the fast lane of the electric and ultra-low emission car revolution today as nine trailblazing models that will be eligible for generous grants of up to £5,000 were unveiled. The grant will be available to motorists across the UK from 1 January 2011, reducing the cost of eligible cars by a quarter, up to a maximum of £5,000.

The first nine cars to become eligible for eco-friendly car grants are: Mitsubishi iMiEV; smart fortwo electric drive; Peugeot iON; Citroen CZero; Nissan Leaf; Tata Vista EV; Toyota Prius Plug-in; Vauxhall Ampera and Chevrolet Volt. More will follow next year.

The successful bidding consortia in this second phase are based in: the Midlands; Greater Manchester; East of England; Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Published 14 December 2010