Error parsing XSLT file: \xslt\FacebookOpenGraph.xslt Damian James' blog: 4 August 2010 - The power is on
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Damian James' blog: 4 August 2010 - The power is on

Date: 04 August 2010

Damian James is Head of Transport Provision for Bracknell Forest Council and a technology champion

It has been confirmed this week that the £5000 subsidy will be available from next year when you purchase a new electric vehicle but is this offer likely to tempt many fleets into buying them?

There are still a lot of unknowns about how these vehicles will work in reality. Leasing companies aren't currently too keen to have them on their books. The auction houses will be dealing with an unknown as will second hand buyers. If buyers can only outright purchase electric vehicles this limits the usage to fleets that have this flexibility or to private buyers. Public sector has always been seen as an area that could have a big interest in electric vehicles and on the face of it that's right. Traditionally they would have a number of vehicles with low mileage, returning to a central point every night and the sector wants to reduce the environmental impact on local residents. All these things tick the right boxes, however in the current climate are we really likely to spend what might be a significant amount of additional money per vehicle when budgets are being cut. I would find it hard to justify and as I contract hire vehicles it might not even be an option for me.

Having said that I certainly don't want to rule anything out at this stage as the final details are not yet known so I shall be watching the developments closely over the next six months or so. It has always been expected that electric vehicles will provide just a small percentage of the market and from what I have seen so far this is unlikely to change anytime soon.

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