UK Government Says Nine Electric Cars Eligible For Subsidies

The U.K. government Tuesday said nine electric cars will initially be eligible for a grant that could reduce the cost of each vehicle by up to GBP5,000 as it also announced that five new areas of the country have won funds to install electric car charging points.

The car models that will be eligible for the grant, worth 25% of the value of the car up to GBP5,000, are the Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (7211.TO) i-MiEV, Daimler AG's (DAI.XE) Smart fortwo electric drive, Peugeot SA's (UG.FR) iOn, the Nissan Motor Co. (7201.TO) Leaf, the Tata Motors Ltd. (TTM) Vista, the Citroen CZero, General Motors Co.'s (GM) Vauxhall Ampera, the Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) Prius plug-in hybrid and GM's Chevrolet Volt.

However, only three of the cars -- the Mitsubishi, the Smart and the Peugeot -- will be available when the grant comes into effect Jan. 1, 2011. The Vauxhall, Toyota and Chevrolet cars won't be available until early 2012.

The U.K. regions getting funds to build a network of electric car-charging points are the Midlands, Greater Manchester, the East of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the government said. Private and public consortia won a share of GBP20 million to build the network in those regions.

Previously, London, Milton Keynes and the north-east of England had won funds to build electric car-charging points.

The government has made GBP43 million available to fund the electric car grant until the end of March 2012, and said it will review the subsidy at that time. It expects more vehicles to be eligible as they become available.

-By Steve McGrath, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9284; steve.mcgrath@dowjones.com

Nissan Motor (PK) (USOTC:NSANY)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024