£8m for switch to electric cars

An extra £8.2million of public money is to be ploughed into the SnP’s campaign to ensure that there is not a single petrol or diesel vehicle on Scotland’s roads by 2050.

Ministers want to encourage drivers to switch to electric cars, motorbikes and even scooters instead.

The funding, announced yesterday, will be provided as interest-free loans – to be paid back over six years – for individuals and businesses who want to buy electric vehicles. However, critics said it was ‘nonsensical’ to pretend electric vehicles were suitable for everyone.

Hugh Bladen, spokesman for the Alliance of British Drivers, said: ‘This mania for electric vehicles is all very well if you live in a town where you are likely to do a low mileage, but to pretend it is the panacea for all is just nonsensical.

‘Some people want to go on holiday on the continent and sometimes drive hundreds of miles a day – how can you do that if you can’t use petrol or diesel vehicles?

‘when you consider that Scotland is full of little hamlets where people need to do a fair amount of mileage, they are just not thinking this through at all.’

Announcing the new funding for the ‘low carbon transport loan fund’ in Edinburgh yesterday, Transport Minister Humza Yousaf said the scheme aimed to help create ‘a greener Scotland’.