Unless a step change is made in improving the range of electric vehicles, it is highly likely that they will be placed in direct competition with public transport, given that efforts on infrastructure provision are focussed in city centres which are accessible by other modes of transport.

I am also concerned that the electric vehicle bandwagon won't help to solve the increased difficulties rural communities face, especially in Scotland. In many remote areas cars are essential. Without adequate range for electric vehicles and no charging infrastructure provision, communities will continue to struggle against the high fuel costs which are grossly exaggerated with extremely high fuel taxes which even makes the most economical cars expensive to run for low income families, who in any event are not likely to be able to afford new vehicles.

To this end, I do hope that there is an equal effort in developing 'drop-in' alternative low carbon synthetic fuels. Avenues for this include: sustainable biofuels produced from waste biomass, algae and seaweed; and also hydrocarbons developed from recycled CO2 captured both from emissions and the atmosphere. The existing vehicle pool does not need to be substituted prematurely and this will also save on the energy and resource costs. Is the existing vehicle fleet has the potential to run on low carbon fuels, why is this being ignored?