Drive for electric cars given £500m plug-in point boost

HIS other car is a battered, litter-strewn Toyota Previa, but Boris Johnson took to the wheel of a brand-new environmentally friendly black cab yesterday to announce a £500million drive for more electric car charging points.

The Prime Minister drove a London taxi a few yards across the floor of the London Electric Vehicle Company factory in Coventry as the Conservatives vowed to ensure that everyone in England and Wales was within 30 miles of an electric vehicle chargepoint.

He also pledged the Tories would increase research and development spending to £18billion by 2024 – guaranteeing that all R&D funding will be replaced post-brexit.

Mr Johnson said a majority Conservative government would drive a clean energy revolution that will “unlock the whole nation’s potential through infrastructure, better education and technology, not just to close the opportunity gap between rich and poor but also between the regions of this country”.

At last month’s Tory party conference, Mr Johnson announced plans to fund research aimed at developing the world’s first nuclear fusion plant, that could power entire towns without creating greenhouse gases or radioactive waste. If successful, it would play a part in reducing the UK’S greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.

The Conservatives would also invest £1billion in the UK’S electric car industry and create a new forest in Northumberland. A Future Homes Standard on new house designs would also be introduced. The party has also pledged an extra £1.8 billion to upgrade further education colleges, more investment in offshore wind and a further £800million for carbon capture and storage. During the 30-minute speech, Mr Johnson insisted there was “a pent-up tidal wave of new investment” waiting to be ploughed into the UK.