http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hHf7CuEiQmN1spKg_KK33OHhrRLA?docId=N1032551326796790541A

Luckily only 900 took advantage last year – but that’s still nearly £4.5m…, do they think we are made of money?

And, if this was the case:

Business Minister Mark Prisk said: “Supporting ultra-low carbon technology in vans makes sense. An upfront purchase grant, when combined with lower running costs and tax benefits, can make switching to an ultra-low carbon van an attractive choice for businesses.”

Why do we need to subsidise a van upto £8k?

Why do we need to subsidise a van upto £8k?

To promote sales that will give the car companies revenue that will allow the price to drop in the future?
Early adopters in adopting early shocka!!

Why do we need to subsidise electric cars to the tune of £5k?

No complaints because the Daily Mail haven’t written an inflammatory ‘report’ telling us we’re all outraged about it

greenist government ever

why no complaints?

Because every ones read this article this morning…guardian outrage article…expect to see a whole new side to STW.

joao3v16 – Member
No complaints because the Daily Mail haven’t written an inflammatory ‘report’ telling us we’re all outraged about it

Funny because I thought the OP was written very much in the style of the DM – eg take something that happened and rewrite with your own slant that bears no relation to the original story – eg that it’s somehow about rich people being given money.

Well don’t the rich benefit more from these ‘green’ initiatives than those on average or below average incomes who don’t have the means to buy new EVs or renewable energy projects?

Funny because I thought the OP was written very much in the style of the DM – eg take something that happened and rewrite with your own slant that bears no relation to the original story – eg that it’s somehow about rich people being given money.

No, its what’s actually occurring, whatever way they want to dress it up – you need to be relatively rich to be spending £25k on a car, having once done so.

And if the story was, for example, poor people get £5k to buy a car it’d be on the front of the DM/Express etc.

Buying an electric car? The 5 grand will be to pay for help with your mental health issues, surely?

another Guardian comment piece:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/18/pays-tesco-ceo-wages-we-do

It’s right – why are we as a society subsidsing the wages that Tesco etc pay their staff so that our citizens can achieve what we consider to be a subsistence family income?

Well don’t the rich benefit more from these ‘green’ initiatives than those on average or below average incomes who don’t have the means to buy new EVs or renewable energy projects?

I’m not sure if that’s true..

my little brother passed his various exams etc to be a sparky last year.. now he’s going to get a loan to get the equipment he needs and a at some point he’ll do the same to get a work van..

so if he’s going to get a discount and be saving cash by getting a greener van then he’s likely to do that isn’t he..?
which is a good thing isn’t it..?

I conclude the OP a daily fail rant

That’s shocking…

br – from your own link

But even with the £5,000 grant, some of these electric vehicles still cost as much as £25,000.

Not: all of these electric cars cost £25k

I’ve no idea tbh what an electric car costs but the story doesn’t say what you claim it does.

A quick google found this

Renault Fluence Z.E. is UK’s cheapest electric car

The Renault Fluence Z.E. is available to buy from £17,850 – after the £5,000 Plug-In Car Grant subsidy

Read more: http://www.which.co.uk/news/2011/06/renault-fluence-z-e–is-uks-cheapest-electric-car-257515/#ixzz1jtbV9pog
Consumer Champions Which?
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial

I’d say that there are plenty of non-rich (UK relative, not global, obviously) people who buy £17k cars judging by how many you see on the roads.

Do you get the whole car for £18k or do you have to rent the battery on an ongoing basis?

It says you pay £75 a month to lease the battery.

Think about from the perspective of an industry you can understand – bikes.

A few years ago the technologies and performance we see today in groupsets for “the common man” were only seen on top end race machines at premium prices. As the technologies bed in and is refined it trickles down to be available to mere mortals. Fortunately the R&D costs of a bunch of bike gears is buttons in comparison to electric cars and there are enough race teams and folk with enough disposable income for desirable leisure orientated products to get through this phase.

To have enough cash to makes electric car R&D feasible you are either going to need early adopters or government grants. By putting the government money at the back end of the process you are rewarding companies bringing viable products to market and encouraging private investment in R&D rather than taking a punt on the unknown which might never see a single vehicle on the road.

Foreign companies bringing products to market. Subsidised by the UK taxpayer. And we paid for our groupsets ourselves. We didn’t expect a taxpayer subsidy.

And we paid for our groupsets ourselves. We didn’t expect a taxpayer subsidy.

read last sentence of my 2nd para properly.

Also it depends what the government aim is – if it is to get more electric vehicles on British roads it does not matter where the R&D is happening (although a lot of foreign car companies in this field do their R&D in the UK) but about hoping it is happening at all. If you deem the transference of reliance from petrol/diesel to electricity is a good thing why should it not happen abroad? If your goal is solely to promote uk industry that is an entirely separate debate.

Given that up to 70% of air pollution in urban areas comes from transport, it is a good thing to help those businesses who drive in urban areas be less polluting.

shocking really.

Considering the cost of fossil fuels, I’d be expecting owners of conventional vehicles to be receiving the subsidy.

I get the go green incentives but battery cars is a dead end technology isn’t it?

Plus “solving the transport/pollution/CO2 problem” shouldn’t just be a switch to greener (mostly single occupancy) private vehicles IMO

Where does the electricity to charge EVs come from? Not all from wind turbines and PV!

Electric cars do remove pollution from urban areas but at one heck of a cost and their overall embedded energy / pollution per mile over thier lifetime is not good.