An electric car exhibition opened at the Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) show-casing the revolution in electric cars that has be gaining pace over the last few years.
The exhibition explains the technology behind 'green' motoring with displays including an Elektrobay,and a Reva G-Wiz.
Nick Forder, MOSI transport curator, said: “Commuting has been a feature of Manchester life for the last hundred years and the advent of cars has greatly increased pollution in the city. Electric vehiclesprovide a viable alternative and can reduce pollution, but there needs to be a comprehensive network of charging points in and around Manchester. The Elektrobay has made part of the exhibition at MOSI which has encouraged people to consider electric vehicles as a form of everyday transport.”
Electric Car Market
Low carbon vehicles will be a bigger market than renewable energy by 2020 according to an HSBC report. The report predicts that some 8.65m electric vehicles and 9.23m plug-in and hybrid electric vehicles will be sold globally by 2020. That will make the market worth $677 (£440bn) a year in 2020. This is up from a 2009 figure of around $113m. This compares to smaller growth in renewable energy predicted to be worth $544bn in 2020.
The lead author of the report put this growth down to growing confidence in the sector and the quality of the vehicles it can produce. Electric cars have be dominating this year's Frankfurt motor show. Although there is potentially a slight manufacturer leaning towards more hybrids, pure electric vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf are performing well.
According to a survey by GfK Automotive reported online , the UK motor industry is on line to receive a £7 billion boost from the electric car market between 2011 and 2014.
This is based, GfK state, on the fact that they surveyed the public and 1.8% of those surveyed would 'definitely' buy an electric car by 2014. This would take the number of electric vehicles to some 300,000 cars
A further 3% of respondents (500,000 of all car buyers) said they would 'consider' buying an electric car. The two main concerns cited however were battery life and the purchase price.
Interestingly, based on this GfK, predict 1 in 20 UK car purchased by 2014 will be an electric car. Undoubtedly the difference between answering a survey and actually buying an electric car is considerable and it would be interesting to know what this survey was based on.