Interesting - including new homes initiative: No 10 hands Jaguar...

Interesting - including new homes initiative:

No 10 hands Jaguar Land Rover £500m loan to develop electric cars
Meeting of carmakers also told of plan for new houses to have EV charging point

Jillian Ambrose Energy correspondent

Mon 15 Jul 2019 19.15 BSTLast modified on Mon 15 Jul 2019 20.43 BST


Jaguar Land Rover is part of a new group overseeing shift to electric vehicles. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images
The government has handed Jaguar Land Rover a £500m loan guarantee to help accelerate its progress in the global electric vehicle race.

Theresa May said the loan would help Britain’s biggest carmaker sell the next generation of electric cars around the world. She told a meeting of industry leaders at Downing Street on Monday that the funding pot would include £500m from UK Export Finance alongside another £125m from commercial lenders.

The roundtable talks included executives from Aston Martin, BMW, Nissan and Vauxhall as well as energy groups BP, Shell and National Grid.

The companies have agreed to set up a green mobility transition board that will formally bring together government, industry and environmental groups to coordinate plans for a switch from traditional to electric vehicles.

May told the gathering that the government was committed to supporting the UK’s automotive sector and expected it to remain at the forefront of the design and manufacturing of electric vehicles.

She set out a number of commitments to increase electric vehicle use, including plans for England to become the first country to introduce mandatory electric car charging points in new homes. There are fewer than 200,000 all electric vehicles on UK roads.

Under the government’s plans, outlined by the Department for Transport, all new-build homes should be fitted with an electric car charge point to prepare for growing numbers of ultra-low-emission vehicles on UK roads.

The government is also seeking views on how to use “smart” charging technology, which uses algorithms to automatically charge parked cars when electricity prices are at their lowest.

Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, said: “[It is] clear there is an appetite for cleaner, greener transport. Home charging provides the most convenient and low-cost option for consumers – you can simply plug your car in to charge overnight as you would a mobile phone.”