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battery
electrics
• The Ministry of Technology has agreed to back the development of a zinc-air battery designed to offer the performance of a conventional lead-acid battery but with a very considerable saving in weight. Giving the news at the SMMT's annual banquet on Tuesday, the Minister, Mr. Wedgwood Benn, said that success for this project would greatly stimulate the use of battery-electric vehicles.
His department has negotiated an agreement with a British company for the project, under which the Ministry will contribute "a significant sum of money" towards the development costs.
Earlier, Mr. Benn had promised that serious consideration would be given to a suggestion by the SMMT president, Sir George Harriman, that the Government should set up a body to foster industrial trade unionism. Sir George thought that one strong union for a strong motor industry would enable a common aim to be pursued.
Sir George asserted that Great Britain's road problem could be solved; he urged the Minister of Transport, who was among the guests, to accept the BRF's recent recommendations on road financing. "How long can we afford to dilly-dally with the road problem without risking national disaster?", he asked.