The French government announced that it would subsidize the implementation of green carbon-free cars. According to President Nicolas Sarkozy, France will set aside 400 million euros over the next four years, or the equivalent of $550 million. The announcement was made during the Paris Automobile Fair.
The money is tagged for use with research and development of cars that will reduce the carbon footprint, but not necessarily electric. Hybrid cars will be researched and funded as well.
On the same day but on another front in the war against carbon, Renault-Nissan and PSA Peugeot Citroen signed independent agreements with the French energy supplier EDF to work in a collaborative effort to commercialize electric cars. The agreements call for the building of battery charging stations around the country as well as the development of new battery technologies by 2011. Renault company execs are predicting they will have a car on the market by 2011. Some forecasters are are predicting as many as 16 million electric cars sold globally by 2016.
Personally, I can’t wait to get a look at one of these electric cars. I think it’s a crap shoot at this point as to who will be first to market. Here in the U.S. it looks like the Chevy Volt is a high contender, although even the Volt isn’t 100% electric. As far as I know, the Tesla Motors Roadster is the only 100% electric car currently on the market. However, with a price tag over $100,000, it’s not likely to gain a wide market share just yet.
Comments
Miles
November 14th, 2008 - 12:41:57 AM
Unfortunately, most green cars are totally uneconomical. They are more a status symbol than an effective mitigant to the world's environmental problems. In fact, as astutely pointed out in the November 12 issue of the WSJ (article, "Obama's Car Puzzle") they are largely a detriment to the environment. Let the free market decide and these things will be priced properly. So long as the government promotes them you can be sure only that we will do more rather than less environmental damage by purchasing these expensive vehicles.
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