BORIS JOHNSON today launched a network of 150 charge points for electric cars, but has received a volley of criticism from environmentalists in return.
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At issue is the low number of charge points in the scheme compared to the thousands promised by the London Mayor earlier.
Last year, Johnson said there would be 7,500 charge points by 2013, but now he says there will be 1,300. The year before last, he was even more ambitious, as the Green Party’s Darren Johnson (no relation) recalls:
“The mayor never explained how he would fund the ambitious plans for 25,000 charging points which he launched with a big fanfair in 2009,” he said.
“He has also failed to guarantee that the charging points will run on renewable energy, so the environmental gains are far less than they should be.”
Nevertheless, Boris Johnson still sounds optimistic about his plans to “make London the epicentre of electric driving in Europe”.
As well as the charge points, the mayor points out that he has offered financial incentives for drivers to switch from petrol to electric cars, such as a 100% Congestion Charge discount.
The network of power points is known as Source London . The way it works is that electric car owners – there are now over 2,000 in London – pay an annual fee of £100 to join and can then plug in to any of the charge points.
