North's electric plans accelerate

Sep 9 2009 By William Green, The Journal

A REGIONAL drive to become a global hub for electric cars today moves up a gear with a multi-million pound boost for a charging network.

The North East is already leading development of plug-in charging points and is a strong contender to make electric vehicles at Nissan’s plant in Washington.

And now the Government and industry chiefs have given a further vote of confidence by including the region in an £11m programme to help support the rollout of a single charging network nationwide for electric vehicles.

Business and political chiefs hailed news that Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough are being included in the "Joined-Cities" plan unveiled by the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), a joint partnership between Government and industry.

Margaret Fay, chairman of development agency One North East, said the announcement was further recognition of the region’s leading role in developing low carbon vehicles. A number of important projects in this sector are now coming together in North East England, which is now to be embedded within the national network of cities.

"This will only help in accelerating the switch to clean transport, which in turn will help generate new investment and jobs within the region," she added.

The news is also a major boost to The Journal’s Great North Revolution campaign to get the region’s economy fit for the future with experts declaring low carbon transport will be a major growth area.

The goal of the Joined Cities scheme is to make it easy to use plug-in cars and charge them anywhere, including at home.

Birmingham, Coventry, Glasgow, London, Oxford and Milton Keynes have also been included in the project.

Critically, it will build on work already under way in the region being carried out by a private-sector partnership led by One North East.

A network of 750 charging points is under development already and supporters include Tesco, British Gas, CE Electric, the AA and Capital Shopping Centres.

The new project will also build on trials of new low carbon vehicles developed in the region and help cities draw up "local incentives" to complement Government funding of up to £5,000 per new vehicle to boost the market for electric cars.

John Shipley, leader of Newcastle City Council, said: "Newcastle is at the forefront of innovation in clean energy technology and we welcome this further investment in infrastructure, which will help to reduce emissions and improve air quality in the city as we work towards a zero carbon future."

The North East Chamber of Commerce hailed the "excellent news" while ETI chief executive David Clarke said it was pleased to be working with the region.

He added it would be a "challenge" to ensure plug-in cars could compete effectively with petrol and diesel vehicles.

Sunderland City Council leader Paul Watson, also chairman of the Tyne and Wear City Region, said: "Sunderland and the North East region are already at the heart of European automotive manufacturing and Nissan has put us at the centre of global technological trends, such as with the recent battery announcement.

"Today’s news shows how the North East region continues to be a focus for exciting technological developments and this infrastructure to support electric vehicles will help support its status as a low carbon economic area."

Senior Nissan executive Andy Palmer, who has responsibility for zero emission programmes, said the company was pleased to be part of the scheme.

"This will certainly help open up the market for EVs nationwide and get us to a sustainable long-term mass market," he said.

Page 2: Car figures boost manufacturing sector