UK Government to invest £40m in EVs promotion

The British Government is investing £40 million ($57m) in a bid to promote the use of electric cars across the country.

In an effort to convince more Brits to change over to electric vehicles (EVs), the Government has set out a number of measures such as building street lights that serve as charging points and making 25,000 parking spaces free for plug-in vehicles.

London, Bristol, Nottingham and Milton Keynes will receive the biggest share of the new economic package, along with four other cities, reported Sky News.

"The UK is a world leader in the uptake of low emission vehicles and our long-term economic plan is investing £600m by 2020 to improve air quality, create jobs and achieve our goal of every new car and van in the UK being ultra-low emission by 2040,” said Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin.

In 2015 sales of alternatively fuelled vehicles rose to 72,775 – a 40% increase compared to the previous year.

With the Government making major cuts in other sectors such as the National Health Service (NHS) some have questioned the need for spending such a larger sum on green energy.