Boris falling behind on electric car targets

A new report has revealed that the mayor of London Boris Johnson’s plans to make the city the European capital of electric cars is falling seriously behind target.

Johnson told international mayors in Seoul that London would have 100,000 electric vehicles on the road in the imminent future, however, there are only 2,313 cars on the road presently, which equates to only 0.08 per cent of the cities total.

Murad Qureshi, Environment Committee chair, said: "Currently progress is slow and we are concerned that it could take many years before we see any environmental benefits from the mayor's ambitious plans. If the mayor wants to encourage more Londoners to drive electric vehicles, he must demonstrate that the charging network is adequate and fits with the way people will actually charge their vehicles.”

It is clear that efforts are being made, however. Source London was launched in May 2011 in an effort to make it easier for electric vehicles to plug in on the move.

The scheme will help create 1,300 publically accessible points across the city by 2013. The scheme initially launched with 150 new charge points making it London’s largest single charging network.

Posted by Lauren Steadman