La volonté du gouvernement d'augmenter les ventes de voitures électriques tombe à plat (document en anglais)

Government's drive to boost electric car sales falls flat

A government plan to make 2011 "the year the electric car took off" appears to have stalled.

The "plug-in car grant" launched in January, offered an incentive of up to £5,000 to buy an electric car.

The number of vehicles sold through the scheme has dropped significantly since its launch, with only 106 being bought in the third quarter of 2011, down from 465 in the first quarter of this year.

The government agreement promised a "national network" of charging points, but the Department for Transport said such a network would be "under-utilised and uneconomic", and recommended that consumers should charge at home instead.

Lewis Merdler, Environmental Protection UK's healthy air campaign manager, said the Government "needs to do more to incite consumers, like introducing stricter low-emission zones in cities, to make zero-emission vehicles more attractive".

Transport minister Norman Baker blamed the poor results on the lack of suitable electric cars. "It is is the main challenge we face in developing the electric car market," he said.

Adapted from www.independent.co.uk, October 22, 2011.

Vocabulary

To fall flat / to stall = to be unsuccessful

To take off = to start developing

Scheme = plan

Network = net/system/group

Lack = very little quantity

Suitable = adapted

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