Capital investment
* Mayor of London talks * Electric cars are the future * Thousands of charging points planned...
Capital investment
In London we are creating the fertile conditions for motorists to plug in with increasing confidence. Tantalisingly, electric vehicles are exempt from the citys congestion charge, underpinning why there are already more electric vehicles moving silently around on the capitals streets than anywhere else in the UK.
In the coming years, you will see tens of thousands of charge points springing up on the capital's streets (the aim is for 25,000 by 2015 powering 100,000 vehicles): in car parks and supermarkets, and you will be able to quickly recharge your vehicles at
a network of fast charge points.
Goodbye to old technology
We are putting our money where our mouth is by converting a significant portion of our own fleet to electric as soon as possible. We are also keen to ensure that a significant proportion of the vehicles used during the Olympics are electric.
Of course it will be sad to say goodbye to the vroom-vroom of 120-year-old technology, but I think we are on the cusp of an overdue change in our motoring that needs only the encouragement of consumer demand, nurtured by the practical measures on the ground of the type we are making in London.
I have pledged not to buy another internal combustion engine family car and I hope more and more others feel inspired to join me.