Open Letter to the Rt. Hon Geoff Hoon MP, Secretary of State for Transport

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – April 21, 2009: On 16th April 2009 Mr. Geoff Hoon, the UK Transport Secretary, announced a Ł250 m programme of support for the purchase of electric vehicles. Central to the statement was the announcement that electric cars – excluding quadricycles – will receive up to Ł5,000 subsidy per car, commencing in 2011.

Going-Electric, the European Association for Battery Electric Vehicles, welcomes this clear signal of support for electric vehicles (EVs).
Indeed, EVs are as the most sustainable form of motorised road transportation. As demonstrated in a Going-Electric study (available at www.going-electric.org/what/reports.htm), electric cars are very environmentally friendly: they use noticeably less energy and, with the UK’s electricity mix, emit well-to-wheel 65% of the CO2 of the cleanest fossil fuel cars (average figure). They can significantly reduce oil dependency, global CO2 emissions, urban pollution and traffic noise without requiring significant increases in electrical infrastructure (until their number reaches 20-25% of all cars).

However, Going-Electric believes the announcement to be ill conceived on two points:

First, it distorts competition and delays the introduction of battery electric vehicles in to the UK.
By announcing the grant will commence in 2011, Mr. Hoon is actually inviting consumers to wait until 2011 to buy an electric car. It distorts competition by placing manufacturers and retailers that are currently selling electric vehicles (EVs) and are planning on introducing new models, or those companies that plan to start selling EVs within the next two years, at a disadvantage. It creates a sales vacuum for EVs already on the market and endangers existing EV companies that are already stressed as a result of the recession. Some of these companies are pioneers and world leaders in EVs, such as GoinGreen, the retailer that created the market for electric cars and made London the electric car capital of Europe; Modec and Goupil, the pioneering electric van manufacturers; Smith Electric Vehicles, Stevens Electric Vehicles, and many others. Mr Hoon’s responsibility lies strongly with supporting existing companies in the sector as much as paving the way for larger OEMs to enter the market.

Also, many other European countries have already implemented schemes for supporting EVs. Therefore, the UK will lag behind over the next two years. This is clearly detrimental to the introduction of battery electric vehicles into the UK market and meeting its target of reducing CO2 emissions by 26% by 2020.

Second, electric quadricycles should be included in the scheme.
The bias against lightweight, low speed electric quadricycles such as the UK’s best selling electric vehicle, the REVA G-Wiz, is highly questionable. Quadricycles are designed for city use and congested roads and are smaller, lighter and lower powered than ordinary cars and speed is not the issue. They are therefore considerably more environmentally friendly: there is less embedded carbon in the manufacture of the vehicles, less carbon emitted well-to-wheel, and less energy consumed. The REVA G-Wiz, for example, emits just 63 g CO2 / km when the carbon emitted at the power station is included (based on the UK’s electricity mix). This is about half of the cleanest diesel, petrol or hybrid cars when the carbon emitted by the transport and refining of oil is included.

There are hundreds of thousands of quadricycles on the roads of Europe, where they are a popular alternative to more polluting and expensive cars and have a better accidentology record than that of ordinary cars, due to the lower speeds at which they operate (Source: AVERE).

The European Association for Battery Electric Vehicles therefore urges the UK government to:

1. Commence the subsidy scheme immediately.
2. Include quadricycles and other small electric vehicles in the scheme on the same terms as cars.