Green Vehicles

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Climate Change – in the Senedd at 2:14 pm on 30 March 2022.

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Photo of Lee Waters Lee Waters Labour 2:14, 30 March 2022

No, indeed, until last week. Forgive me, Llywydd, I keep hearing her declarations of interest in my head, so it stuck.

We have funded a green taxi pilot in Denbighshire, in Pembrokeshire and in Cardiff to 'try before you buy' and we've installed rapid chargers in those areas, and we're planning rapid charging points on the strategic road network this year, as well as, as I mentioned, the electric bike pilot project, one of which is in Rhyl, and I was very pleased to take part in myself, which is an excellent project with great enthusiasm.

On her point on scrappage schemes, it's an interesting point and one we've got an open mind about. I think this is best done at a UK level. There is a risk here, I think, because most people are not going to be able to afford electric cars for some time, until a robust second-hand car market emerges. We see around a quarter of households without access to any car at all, and there's a judgment for us of where we put scarce resources. Do we do it in serving people who already have access to cars to give them a nice green car, or do we do it to improve public transport, to give people on low incomes who don't have access to transport to have that? So, that is the dilemma for us. There's a very interesting scheme in Birmingham as part of their clean air zone, which I know you oppose, looking at a scrappage scheme to incentivise people to drive into the city centre in clean vehicles. So, I think there's an ongoing debate for us all to have about the right balance to reach these necessary targets.