I've been toodling around on a ZEV for the past three months, in that time not going into a Petrol station once! Most excellent. We don need no stinkeen government to tell us to drive electric, all we need is the ZEVs and we'll do the rest .. Manufacturers take note, you're all too damn slow.

So a Government that rakes in over £25 BILLION in fuel duty spends £100m on 'green motoring'.

And they wonder why people think that global warming is merely an excuse to raise taxes?

By my reckoning £10Million divided by 100 is £100,000, which I think will handsomely cover a Tesla Roadster. Looks like some of these family trials will have some extremely small children then!

Joking apart, while I can understand the budget needing to have spare cash for maintenance and support of these 100 vehicles, but since when did it mean the majority of the budget when they are supposed to be cheaper to run? I smell something distinctly of the Grimsby origin here - and it's not a Fisherman's Friend.

If it's to part-fund the development of the vehicles then that's bang out of order. Why on earth should UK tax be going to predominantly foreign companies to pay for something they have already spent some years tossing around with and getting nowhere? Obviously these firms will pay the money back when sales take off. Not.

It would seem to be that the *cooperation* of the Reg Hardware hack(s) can be purchased for the cost of a short-term loan of a shiny thing.

Sell-outs!

...the government announced that all the hot air that's spouted by spokesmen making announcements about "green" projects will be used to produce one gigawatts of free electricity which will power a massive illuminated sign, a mile high, which will read: Conform, Consume, Obey.

If £100m investment will create 10,000 new jobs then those poor saps will be on salaries of less than £10,000 each. Probably half that once you subtract the cost of the vehicles, 1000's of meetings, and a fortune in expenses.

Mark my words. Nothing will come out of this. I think this is all part of the government's plans to bankrupt Britain before the Tories take over in 2010. Gordon said his plan is to spend, spend, spend. He could at least spend it on something that will be hugely beneficial to us in real terms.

I know many officialdom names change with the wind, but they've been DfT for some years now.

Mine's the one with "pedant" across the back.

PS. There are plenty of DoT's in other countries.

PPS. I remember reading that an apostrophe was acceptable to pluralise an abbreviation.

That'll be from all the press releases then?

so long as they don't put it back in the petrol, I suppose...

Last I remember, we were going to have enough trouble generating enough 'leccy for normal day-to-day operations... and now they want to plug the countries transport in as well???

"In terms of putting tyres on tarmac, the LCVIP has £10m to fund the purchase of 100 electric cars that will be used by “families and other motorists” - we were not previously aware of an official distinction between people with drivers licences but no children, and folk with both - which will generate feedback about how to make everyday green motoring a reality."

wtf? so these cars are 100,000 each?!?!?!?! are they supercars?

is to buy Daimler shares at rock bottom and wait till the electric Smart comes out.

They could be. Tesla Roadster (chassis designed by Lotus so it's more British than most things the gov't invest in) + mods to house wiring to accommodate a decent charging current could be done for £100k.

Lets just hope this is what happens!

"Apparently 10,000 news jobs will be created in the UK as a result of the LCVIP initiative, though exactly how is not made clear."

<RANT>

How about lowering the tax on fuel for commercial vehicles first? That way, there is a chance that 10,000,000 people in small businesses, haulage companies etcetera get a chance at KEEPING their jobs!

How about forcing energy companies to lower prices? That way the poor and the old don't have to freeze this winter.

How about telling the truth about crime figures for a change? Hell, how telling the truth about anything?

Sure the green brigade get their electric cars, fat lot of good it will do them when someone stabs them and sets fire to it to keep warm!

</RANT>

am shocked! SHOC... eh who am I kidding. It isn't quite like I grabbed the mains, now is it. We're talking about gubbermint here. The pols once again used the second floor of the double decker outhouse while the people are stuck on the lower level.

Electric cars are NOT low-emission. If anything, they're higher-emission than conventional fuel-burning cars.

Generating station engines are even less efficient than car engines; they burn more fuel per kWh than car engines. (The fuel they used is subsidised, as opposed to taxed; and investing in new machinery that might take years to pay for itself is too expensive when the shareholders have to buy themselves new villas on the Med right now). And not every kWh of kinetic energy coming from the engine ends up reaching a power point, due to losses in the distribution network; and not every kWh of electrical energy coming out of the wall ends up getting converted back to kinetic energy in the car, due to losses in the charging process and the control electronics.

What we really need is biofuel from specifically non-edible feedstock.

Déjà Vu anyone!?

Does anyone remember the 'General Motors - EV1'?

An electric car capable of traveling hundreds of miles on a single charge and out performing combustion engines in many areas?

If you don't then watching the documentary: 'Who Killed the Electric Car',

is essential viewing.

Electric cars will only be available when greed dictates.

G.

Yeah, nice conspiracy theory stuff, which overlooks the primary and most glaring reason the EV1 failed.

It was crap and nearly all the marketing puff about the range and performance was, er, marketing puff. Still, the fact that's it's complete bollocks never stopped a good conspiracy theory now, did it?

It’s a shame that so many people dismiss the truths of the world as being,

‘Conspiracy Theories’, whilst many are the fact of strategic financial and economic agendas.