INFOMANIA.CO.UK

The UK Labour government have announced a subsidy of £5000 for electric and plug-in hybrid cars. Plug-in hybrid cars can be recharged from the mains or ‘on the go’ by a conventional engine.

The bad news is that the subsidy won’t be available until 2011 – after the next General Election, when Labour are highly unlikely to be still in power.

The other bad news is the amount of money set aside – £250m. That is enough for 50,000 electric cars out of  UK car sales of over 2 million a year. Maybe they’d be better off spending the money on putting charging stations where all those derelict petrol stations are.

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US ’personal transport’ manufacturer Segway, aided and abetted by General Motors, have come up with a two-seater vehicle, Project PUMA (Personal Urban Mobility & Accessibility). Looking something like an upright version of the late lamented Sinclair C5 electric car the vehicle is due to hit the streets in 2012.

Segway PUMA prototype

The electric Project PUMA vehicle has a top speed of 35 MPH with a range of 25-35 miles on a charge. Based on a two-wheel chassis, similar to the stand-up Segway transporter. As you can see from the photograph the look is that of a skeletal Smart car.

No hint as yet on results from Euro NCAP crash tests…

bill News c5, car, electric, puma, segway, sinclair