Electric Hype

So the government is thinking about a £5,000 pound scheme to get people top buy electric cars from 2011.

This is on top of a much flounted atempt to pay people £2,000 to trade in their old cars for more environmentally efficient ones.

Is this the right way to go?

Well read the editorial in the Guardian this morning

it provides dubious economic benefit, probable environmental harm and, crucially, will only heighten Britons' dependence on cars when we ought to be weaning ourselves off them. The economics are simple: all taxpayers - princes and paupers alike - will be paying for a few lucky souls to treat themselves to a new car. This scheme will pay for part of its own way, but it is likely to cost more than the loan guarantees that Jaguar-Land Rover asked for last autumn.

As for specifically electric cars,how exactly are these going to be made and the infrastructure put in to support a network?

We should be thinking about electric buses and more trains rather than cars, and emphasising public rather than private transport, especially in urban conurbations. Over the past century, the car has gone from rare luxury to commonplace utility. Over this century, it will need to reverse that journey.