Last Saturday, Weymouth seafront was turned into a shop window for electric cars. This eye-catching event was sponsored and supported by Dorset Council, Weymouth Town Council, the Weymouth TAG, the Department for Transport, the Energy Saving Trust and Sustrans.
The event was in a prominent position on the seafront and drew considerable interest and a good level of engagement by towns people and visitors.
There was a good range of EV suppliers from local garages and a local taxi firm showing off a wide variety of cars on display from small to top of the range BMW’s. Test drives on most models were available.
Dorset Council were represented by a team of people including Cllr Jon Andrews, the portfolio holder for transport. They promoted the advantages of going electric and showed off the latest in on-street car chargers.
A significant surge in electric cars is expected since the government targets were introduced to lower pollution, and reduce the carbon footprint. Fully electric cars now make up nearly a quarter of all car sales in the UK and Autotrader reported in April that new Electric Cars are now on average cheaper to buy than petrol cars. Their ongoing fuel costs are much lower.
Next Year, Dorchester Transport Action Group (DTAG) are talking to Dorset Council about holding a similar event in Dorchester.