UK government grants for electric vehicles do not give consumers and investors confidence, Better Place LLC CEO Shai Agassi told British daily "The Guardian". He said that he wants to bring electric cars to the UK, but the government's policy on electric vehicles was too small and short-term to make the required investment.
"The Guardian" says that the UK government's climate watchdog wants to see 1.7 million electric cars on UK roads by 2020 to meet its carbon targets. Last month, the UK government initiated a plan to subsidize electric car purchases by up to £5,000 each.
The status of the subsidy, part of incentives by the previous Labor government, will be reviewed in 2012 by the current Conservative government as part of its budget cuts.
Agassi said, "One thing that's missing in the UK is clarity of government regulations," he said. "When we come in and do a project like [Better Place], it's a fairly intensive infrastructure project with a lot of investment. Investors want to see clarity on the regulatory framework that would indicate that the government would support this for a long period of time, not just for a small number of cars or a short period of time."
Agassi mentioned several countries that are already creating incentives for major electric car investments. He said that Israel set a 72% tax on gasoline-powered cars and a 10% tax on electric cars, and Denmark has 180% tax on gasoline cars and zero on zero-emission cars. "In France there's a €5,000 incentive towards electric cars, in China there's a $8,800 incentive towards electric cars, Japan it is $12,000, US it's $7,500."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 10, 2011
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