Besides reducing traffic and emissions in England's capital — and teaching the cashmere-and-pearls set the value of public protest — London's congestion charge zone is giving a lift to sales of gas-electric hybrids.
Hybrid vehicles get a 100 percent discount on the $15 charge for bringing a car into the city center. That incentive has increased demand so much that Honda is tripling its UK supply of Civic Hybrids for 2007 to 3,000 vehicles. Honda's sales figures indicate strongly that the congestion zone deserves a big share of the credit: one third of recent orders for the Civic Hybrid come from London and the southeast region. Toyota, too, says Prius sales in London surged 135 percent year-over-year in January 2007. Forecasters expect 6,500 more hybrids in London by 2008. The congestion zone concept may not please everyone, but it sure seems to work.
[Source: Honda, Transport for London, Green Car Congress]
