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The government must do more to counter “misinformation” on electric vehicles published in parts of the UK press, a Lords enquiry has said.
Despite the UK registering one million electric cars on Monday, growth of the vehicles has flatlined.
The Lords Climate Change Committee urged the government to build consumer confidence and push back against what it called mistruths on range and cost.
The government did not comment on this but said £2bn was committed to EVs.
Nearly a quarter of the UK’s carbon emissions – responsible for climate change – are produced by road transport, according to the latest figures. Switching to electric vehicles could help to significantly reduce these emissions, but despite government and industry efforts only about 3% of cars are powered by electricity.
Baroness Parminter, chair of the committee, told the BBC that both government officials and other witnesses to the enquiry had reported reading disinformation on the subject in national newspapers.
“We have seen a concerted effort to scare people… we have seen articles saying that cars are catching fire – but had evidence that the fire risk is absolutely the same as [petrol and diesel] cars,” she said.
The Lords committee did not single out any newspaper in particular.
Testifying before the committee, Richard Bruce, Director of Transport Decarbonisation at the Department for Transport, conceded there
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