Europe Pays the Price

According to the AA, as of February we pay the eighth highest price in Europe for our unleaded. The worst off are the poor citizens of Norway who shell out a whopping 147p a litre, followed by the Netherlands at 138.96p.

Fans of diesel motoring will be dismayed to hear though that the UK is the second most expensive litre in Europe, behind only Norway at 142.03p.

However you look at the figures, it's clear that Europe generally is wearing the cost of national budget deficits and surging oil prices. The US is also struggling with these issues, and yet they continue to pay 51.16p per litre.

With such high petrol prices in Europe, perhaps then the future really is and should be electric. Trimming a policy introduced under Labour, the coalition are sticking with grants of up to £5k on the first 8,600 EVs sold to consumers.

You also won't pay any road tax or London Congestion Charge, and there are plans to put in a network of EV charging points in key areas up and down the country.

This is encouraging. And the UK is not alone in trying to embrace EV culture.

The French Government offer a similar subsidy scheme (up to 5,000 Euros) for vehicles emitting 60g/km or less. And, dependent on the region, Spain offers 2,000 Euro grants for hybrids and 6,000 Euro grants for EVs.

Meanwhile countries such as Denmark have taken another approach by placing a 180% registration tax on petrol cars but an exemption on zero-emission cars such as EVs.

Such temptations are not merely directed at consumers. In 2010 Nissan received a ?20.7 million grant to build the Leaf in Sunderland.