Kramer claims electric car success ahead of Lib Dem pledge to ban non ultra-low emission cars

Transport minister Baroness Kramer has hailed a rise in the number of electric cars from 111 in the year the coalition came to power to 6,000 in the first eight months of 2014.

She said the threefold increase this year compared to 2013 showed "there's real momentum in the electric car market today" and set out the coalition expectation that "by 2050, almost every car on the road [will] be ultra-low emission". Her party is pledging to remove non ultra-low emission cars not carrying freight from U.K roads within 25 years. 

Kramer said the plug-in grant to cut the upfront cost of ultra-low emission vehicles by up to £5,000 was claimed by twice as many people in the last quarter than the one before, which was itself a record. She also wants to extend the electric charging infrastructure further to motorways and A roads, and on high streets.

"The UK already has the best network of rapid chargepoints in Europe. London has more chargepoints than petrol stations" she said.