London Congestion Charge Boosting Hybrid Sales
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 02.19.07
The London congestion charge is being expanded westward starting today. "Transport for London claims the congestion charge has already cut emissions and poured funding into London's transport system. So far the congestion charge has brought about a reduction in congestion of up to 26%." But that's not the only benefit of this measure: It is also helping the sale of hybrid cars which are exempted from the £8 per day charge. Honda has announced that it will triple the supply of its Civic hybrid to 3,000 units during 2007. Toyota is also reporting gains for the Prius hybrid: "January’s Prius sales [are] up by 135% compared to the same month last year [and] full year figures [are] up by more than a third in 2006 to a new record of 5,017 units in the UK, up from 3,745 units sold in 2005." Good, but if you can, it's still better to walk, cycle or take public transportation. ::Green Car Congress
It's great that this is cutting emissions. I wonder what Ken would do if there was a big increase in exempt cars resulting in no reduction in congestion...
I think once the decrease in congestion was cancelled out
by the significant increase in hybrid only vehicles, the next
logical step would be to phase out the hybrid incentive and
go to a Plug-in Hybrid incentive to run in "all electric mode", while being exempt from the daily fee. This way the vehicles that would be truely emission free would aslo be free from fees. This graduated approach would phase out pollution from
the congested city in a way that rewards early adopters of
non emission vehicles.