The rising cost of fuel in the UK shows no sign of abating, but recent comments from former Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond, suggest that government policy will not alleviate the strain of high fuel prices any time soon. In fact, Mr. Hammond was quoted as saying: “People should look to new technologies. Electric cars are very cheap to run and allow motorists to drive guilt free.” He made the comments at the launch of POLAR, a network of privately funded electric charge points run by Chargemaster.
So the message is clear: buy an electric car, or continue to pay some of the highest fuel prices in the world. Hammond and those in the government appear to be suggesting that they have provided a viable alternative in the electric car.
But with cars such as the Nissan Leaf costing around £25,000 (a figure arrived at even after the government’s £5,000 electric car grant), this new electric technology may appear to be prohibitively expensive to many motorists.
When asked about the high price of fuel, Mr. Hammond said it was largely dictated by global oil prices and was not in the hands of the government. Such a stance might be perceived as odd when it is understood that 60% of the price of a litre of fuel goes straight to the government’s coffers. Some might argue that the government is not keen on losing the massive amount of revenue generated by fuel tax, especially at a time when the public finances are in such a wanting state.
While the costs of electric vehicles are likely to come down in the long term, the time when startrescue.co.uk is providing vehicle recovery services to mostly electric powered cars, appears to be a long way off.
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