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UK Scrappage Incentive, a £5,000 Smoke Screen

United Kingdom's dazzling 5,000 pounds trade-in bonus to be awarded to those who change their old vehicles for new hybrid or EV ones has been deemed as being a "gimmick" by UK critics, especially because it refers to a scheme which will be implemented some two years from now.

The plan announced yesterday is included in a broader plan worth 250 million pounds to reduce emissions in the country. As a whole, the entire program is said to create an extra 400,000 jobs in the UK's automotive industry, as well as to reduce the pollution levels.

Critics however say that the scheme will put on the British streets some 26,000 vehicles, representing about 0.1 percent of the country's 26 million vehicles, dailymail.co.uk reported. Not to mention that the small impact of these cars on the environment will be dwarfed by the pollution coming from burning fossil fuels in order to produce electricity.

"Electric cars are only as green as the electricity they run on. Ministers must take action to boost the UK's flagging renewable energy industry," Friends of the Earth transport campaigner Tony Bosworth was quoted as saying by the aforementioned source.

The fact that the bonuses will not be given to people who buy current generation hybrids like the Toyota Prius further adds to the problem. Also, the lack of any charging stations in the UK made shadow chancellor George Osborne say "the Labour plan is like giving people a grant to buy an internal combustion engine, without bothering to set up any petrol stations."

"An electric car strategy has the potential to spark a personal transport revolution in UK cities but if poorly co-ordinated and implemented, it could short-circuit itself," AA president Edmund King told the source.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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