Will EU proposals price first time car buyers out of the market?
The EU has decided that we need to clamp down on CO2 emissions from cars. Manufacturers will be set a target that is about a fifth less than an average Ford Focus does today. Or a third of the total emissions of a top spec Range Rover.
Emissions from cars need to be cut – we all agree on that. This is the future of our planet we are talking about. But car manufacturers have said that these proposals will add £3,300 to the price of a new car. This will price many people out of the market – especially when it comes to buying their first car.
Will people, especially first time buyers, be prepared to pay more for a greener car? There are alternatives – Lotus Cars in Norfolk have been doing a lot of work with US firm Tesla Motors. The Tesla Roadster has an electric motor that produces fantastic performance and has a range of 250 miles. Most importantly of all it has no CO2 emissions at all. The problem – at the moment each Tesla Roadster will cost £50,000. But this is cutting edge stuff and much more should be done to support this kind project.
Posted in Climate Change on 7 February 2007 by David Ruffley
Comments
It\\\'s fantastic to finally see a British MP highlighting the outstanding Tesla project rather than banging on about hybrids like the Prius which achieve nowhere near the reported mpg and are an environmental compromise at best.
If the Tesla Roadster was produced in sufficient volume the cost would fall dramatically - at the moment they are only producing 800 units are year which are for US customers only.
Posted 7 February 2007 by Lou
It is very important that efforts made by car companies to reduce the emissions from their cars are supported as much as possible. If we are ever going to reverse this tide in climate change then electric cars need to be both cheap and practical if they are ever going to replace the current petrol ones. The government should be supporting these efforts as much as possible.
Posted 10 February 2007 by Edward
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