MAYOR OF LONDON’S OFFICE CHOOSES i-MiEV TO SIGNAL NEW DAWN FOR CAPITAL’S EV INFRASTRUCTURE AT COP15

The car chosen to exemplify a new dawn of low and ultra-low carbon vehicles by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson today was the Mitsubishi i-MiEV. Lance Bradley, Mitsubishi Motors UK’s Managing Director commented, “As one of the first mainstream manufacturers to supply a full production electric car, we were more than happy to provide an i-MiEV for use during the Summit.”

Speaking at the COP15 environmental summit in Copenhagen, the Mayor of London, heralded that “A golden era of clean, green electric motoring is upon us and London is well ahead of cities around the globe in preparing the right conditions for this.”

He was addressing city leaders from around the world to promote London's advanced plans to make electric cars an everyday feature of life in the capital. London is leading a coalition of major cities working to use their collective clout to create massive global electric vehicle markets through joint procurement commitments.

Announcing that every Londoner will be no more than one mile from an electric car charge point by 2015, the Mayor revealed detailed plans to deliver a comprehensive network of electric charge points in the capital, supporting the mainstream use of zero carbon-emission electric vehicles.

The charge point plan is the first milestone in the Mayor's over-arching vision to make London the electric capital of Europe. The strategy shows how by 2015 in London, 22,500 charge points will be at workplaces, with 500 on street and 2,000 in public car parks. A strategic network of publicly accessible faster charge points will be installed as part of this coverage at key locations on the road network and motorway service stations.

He went on to say that ”There is an urgent need to tackle the risk of serious and irreversible climate change, yet this does not need to be about hair shirt abstinence. I want to pursue radical yet practical steps to cut energy waste. Electric vehicles are a clear example of how technology can provide the solution to the biggest challenge of our generation.”