Clean fuel units set to double
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• by Robin Meczes
Transportaction Powershift (TP), the government-backed programme set up to stimulate demand for clean-fuel vehicleS, aims to more than double the number of vehicles funded so far with another 8,000 in the current financial year.
Its budget for the next three years has been tripled, so TP is confident that there will be no repetition Of the financial problems which caused it to run out of cash in 2000.
Speaking at a seminar in Surrey Set up to help promote interest in alternative fuels, Powershift programme manager Neil Wallis explained: "Last year's [financial] budget was £3.3m but there was a big surge in grant applications that resulted in us running out of funds in January. Demand can be hard to predict, but for the next three years the budget is ElOm a year so no, we're not going to run out of money again!"
Wallis reports that up to 3,000 vehicles have already been funded—some are new; the rest are conversions.
About 18m a year will be available for grants; the rest of the budget will go on administration and other operational costs.
• On the key issue of fuelling points, Wallis says the number of 116 fuelling stations has risen from about 350 a year ago to 659 today.