Government Incentives 1 - The Pros

BEST ELECTRIC CARS 2011

The country's motorists seem to be forever wrestling with increased fuel costs and VAT hikes. You might therefore be tempted to invest in one of a new wave of UK electric cars hitting our showrooms over the next 12 months. They offer you almost zero running costs after all.

And the government appears to want to help, thanks to its subsidy scheme giving you £5,000 off the price of a new electric vehicle. So everything as rosy, as well as green?

Part one looks at the pros of buying a new electric car in 2011.

BEST ELECTRIC CARS 2011

In April 2009 the Labour government announced a £250 million grant scheme, giving up to £5k to subsidise the cost of buying an electric car for the first 46,000 EVs sold. In 2010, the new coalition government agreed to keep the policy - but stripped the number of subsidies down, supporting only the first 8,600 buyers, thanks to a reduced budget of £43 million.

Last month the government unveiled its finalised plans for the EV Plug-In Car Grant scheme, revealing the first nine EVs to qualify for the scheme until the end of March 2012.

The nine cars are the Mitsubishi i-MiEV (Jan 2011), Smart fortwo electric drive (lease only - Jan 2011), Peugeot iOn (lease only - Jan 2011), Nissan Leaf (March 2011), Tata Vista (March 2011), Citroen C-Zero (lease only - early 2011), Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid (early 2012), Chevrolet Volt (early 2012) and the Vauxhall Ampera (early 2012).

The government has said it will review the situation in January 2012 and add other eligible cars next year where necessary.

Couple this with the £20 million Plugged-In Places scheme to install EV charging points in Greater Manchester, Midlands, east England, Scotland and Northern Ireland and it's all seemingly good news.

But what about the EVs themselves? They cost on average 2p per mile to run (the i-MiEV cost only £270 in electricity for 12,000 miles in one recent test). They also produce zero emissions and are exempt from road tax, can park for free in some places, boast low servicing costs and are exempt from the congestion charge and road tax. They can be viewed then as an excellent long-term option.