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发表于 2008-8-21 22:44:39 | 只看该作者 回帖奖励 |倒序浏览 |阅读模式
Aug 14th 2008
From The Economist print edition

For all the political hype, London is still ambivalent about them

Reuters

More where this came fromONCE the preserve of ageing former presidents, overfed golf stars and milkmen, electric vehicles are much in vogue these days. A survey this month by esure, a car-insurance company, found that 71% of British motorists would consider driving one, and all the main political parties have burnished their green credentials by supporting financial incentives for owners of cars with low carbon-dioxide emissions. This, and the painfully high price of petrol, has seen the number of electric cars in London increase dramatically, from 90 in 2003 to 1,600 in 2008.

At first glance, this figure seems bound to rise further. Last month Boris Johnson, London’s new mayor, said that he was setting up a body to support electric-car drivers in the capital—the Electric Vehicle Partnership for London. Top of its list of things to do is installing more public points at which electric-car owners may top up their batteries. At the moment there are 40 spots dotted around the London streets where drivers who have paid £75 for a key can pull in and plug in free of charge, and some privately owned car parks have charging points too. Another 100 charging stations are now on the cards.

London officials are also interested in talking with Renault-Nissan, which builds plug-in electric cars and the networks that support them. The carmaking alliance has focused so far on selling to small countries—especially net energy importers that are struggling with soaring fuel prices—and has concluded deals to set up networks of battery-exchange and recharging points in Israel, Denmark and Portugal. Increasingly, however, it is directing its marketing efforts at large cities.

Yet what London gives with one hand, it takes away with the other, it seems. Electric cars are currently entitled to free parking in several London boroughs. This, in Britain’s crowded and overpriced capital, is perhaps the strongest financial inducement to drive electric cars (they are also exempt from vehicle-excise duty and London’s congestion charge). The free-parking scheme in the financial district runs out at the end of this year; by 2011 owners of electric vehicles will pay the same as everyone else. That will dim the cars’ appeal.

For all their environmental worthiness, electric cars at present have limited range and usefulness. Much is made of how little they cost to run. But commercial parking fees of £4,000 or so a year could well tip the scales for those without stratospheric salaries for whom electric cars compete more with public transport than with private cars. The justification for removing free parking—that electric cars, however green, take up valuable space—is fair enough. But it will not win more electric-car owners: on that logic, the congestion-charge exemption could (rightly) be the next to go.

The modesty of London’s ambitions also smacks of ambivalence. Against the city’s planned 140 charging points, Israel wants 500,000, albeit nationwide. Beyond London, progress is only slightly better: to the 60 charging stations that now exist a further 1,000 are to be added by the end of 2009. In late July Gordon Brown pledged £90m to help make Britain “the European capital for electric cars”. Sadly, the capital of this prospective capital, for the moment at least, appears to be in two minds.
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