Islay Wave bus powered by renewable energy
Electric vehicles are extremely quiet and produce no tailpipe pollution. Where the electricity is generated from renewable energy, as with the Islay Wavebus, their use creates no carbon emissions at all. Unlike fuel cell vehicles, which are still at the prototype stage, electric vehicles are available as production models from most major car makers. Citroen and Peugot provide electric options on many of their models. Ford recently launched the think! Electric city car, whilst Toyota and Honda have developed new electric/petrol hybrids with the Prius and Insight models. The Toyota Prius is a market leader and had reached global sales of 55,000 by the end of 2001 which doubled the number of electric vehicles in the world. New air pollution legislation in California requires that 15% of all new buses are zero emission. In London green vehicles will be exempt from congestion charging, which will increase demand for electric cars and vans.
Electric buses offer many advantages over buses with conventional internal combustion engines. In addition to the environmental benefits they are quiet, easy to maintain, suited to frequent stopping and starting, and have much lower fuel costs than diesel buses.
Unfortunately the development of green buses in the UK has been blocked by huge subsidies that the Government give to diesel buses. All public service buses are given 80% rebate on fuel levy which amounts to a £360 million annual support for diesel and destroys the incentive for bus operators to choose electric or other low carbon vehicles. This contrasts with the £3 million available for all new green fuel technologies from the government. As a result there has been little improvement in the environmental performance of new buses. There are only six other electric buses operating in the UK.
In April 2002 the Chancellor announced a review of bus subsidies. Greenpeace is calling on the government to change the bus subsidy system so that it doesn't lock bus operators into using diesel, and is pushing for the creation of a dedicated fund to support an electric bus demonstration programme in the UK.
