With the arrival of the 70-plate number plate also comes the new green stripe on the registration for electric cars this autumn, with Nissan sharing images of how electric car number plates will now look going forward.
The green slash for electric car number plates was announced in June of 2020 by Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps ,with the aim to visibly raise awareness of cleaner vehicles on roads and encourage future incentive schemes that inspire the increase in electric cars. The plans for the new plates for electric vehicles were revealed in October 2019.
With the green stripe now easily identifying electric vehicles, local authorities could help by offering discounted entry for these drivers to low emission zones, discounted parking and other beneficial schemes.
With these extra benefits of owning an electric car, the Government may be able to reach their aim of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. However, this could be met with aggression from drivers of conventional combustion engine vehicles.
The transition to present green number plates followed a consultation that was propelled last year with the proposal motivated by a similar scheme in Ontario Canada. The Canadian scheme allows plug-in hybrid drivers and electric vehicle drivers free entry to car-pool lanes and toll lanes with even just one person in the car. This has incentivised drivers to switch and led to an increase in electric vehicle purchases.
To further advance the Government’s scheme to power a green recovery, £12 million has been funded into pioneering research into the zero-emission market which has additionally been introduced to boost greener vehicles and help enhance vehicle charging technology.
In addition, OLEV is also providing £2 million to small and medium UK businesses to aid their investigations into zero-emission vehicles in fields such as battery innovation, which could be used by significant vehicle producers in future electric vehicle manufacturing.
This extra funding will assist these businesses to encourage local economic growth with researching and advancements into fields that include charging infrastructure and zero emission cars, which could in exchange create over 6,000 qualified jobs.
With greener and cleaner transport solutions, people will be able to travel safely and encourage a green economic recovery as the country rebuilds.