Would you like up to £5000 towards your next car, sounds quite appealing! This is the sum of the grant being offered by the UK government to people who wish to take up the option of low carbon electric cars. The scheme will start in January 2011 when it will account for 25 percent of the purchase price of new cars with a greener footprint than conventional vehicles. It is however at this time it is only being made available for one year.

To qualify as ‘Ultra-Low-Carbon’ and be accepted on the grant scheme the car must be able to do 70 miles to each recharge, be new with a three-year warranty and be capable of 60mph.

The incentive aims to kick start the market for ultra-low carbon vehicles. A total of £43 million has been made available for the programme up to 31 March 2012. The government has indicated that there will be a review in January 2012 to see if the grant facility can be extended.

The drive to encourage people to adopt the use of Ultra-Low-Carbon Cars goes beyond the vehicles themselves. A major programme is underway to significantly increase the number of refueling points throughout the UK. These facilities will be offering not just electric top-up but will also be offering cleaner burning auto-gas. £660,000 will be made available and will be shared amongst six successful bidders as match funding for their infrastructure projects that will be geared to support low carbon vehicle use.

The UK government are now keen to demonstrate their commitment to low carbon infrastructure. Earlier this year half a million pounds from the Department of Transport was assigned to projects where a wide range of gas, bio-gas and electric vehicles are to be trialled, forming part of the government’s policies aimed as building a low carbon economy. This demonstrates that sustainable transport is now securely on the agenda as a key component towards the solutions to climate change.

For more information on this and a guide to buying greener cars please visit:

www​.direct​.gov​.uk