What is the best way to encourage people to buy more environmentally friendly cars?

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

Make it worth their while.
If it is cheaper to buy an environmentally friendly car people will take that option far more easily than if you just say it's good for the environment.

Whilst most people would like to do what they think is best for the planet, they are more likely to do it if it saves them money.

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

If we are to encourage consumers to change, we need to make sure they see real benefits both personally and to the environment. Money is a major factor in most people’s lives, so we need to reduce the total cost of motoring using greener cars and provide easy access to the fuel that powers them.

Answer 2

i'll start when someone can convince me that global warming is actually happening

Answer 3

make them look like the ever day road car we get that runs on petrol

regards x kitti x

Answer 4

It's kind of late for that Doug. We are dying too rapidly now.

This beautiful precious wonderful gift from God is dying and there are far too many unhappy people...

More than silly cars needs to be fixed!

Answer 5

sell only environmentally friendly cars. "You've left with no choice but to....."

Answer 6

only make environmentally cars, then people will have to buy them.

Also why do they make cars that can go up to 100mph and more, if you can only drive up to 70mph. If they only went up to 70 then no one would be doing stupid speeds on motorways.

Answer 7

Well none of the cars EXACTLY eco-friendly. Electricity, wind, petrol, hydrogen, soalr energy etc, eahch ave a radiation signature. Solar energy and electricity are only safe when they are not near any humans, they still create radiation. To be eco-friendly means to go back to horse and cart or use pbulic transport as look at it this way, one bus could caryr lets say sixty people, now, how many cars is that in comparison for those poeple and energy being created.

Answer 8

Make them cheaper than environmentally non-friendly cars.
Lower prices always encourage people to buy anything.

Answer 9

To be encouraged, we have to be rewarded, not fined.

I refused to be forced to be more environmentally friendly by increasing my insurance or increasing my car tax. This just angers me even more.

People who are environmentally friendly will not see any benefits in our lifetime becuase we are not making the world a better place, just delaying the inevitable.

I always thought that companies could get together to produce a green points card, where points are gained by purchasing items which are environmentally friendly. The points can be used to purchase holidays etc

Answer 10

Make them cheaper. I have a middle aged car, and have been horrified at the increase in road tax this year- I am not in a financial position to buy a newer model and therefore am being penalised because of it's emissions- I thought that recycling cars was better for the environment than producing more and more vehicles which then sit for years in massive car parks waiting to be sold. If you have the money to buy a brand spanking new car, you also get a financial gain by paying a ludicrously small amount of road tax- though you still drive the same roads- another government initiative which financially cripples the people who can least afford it.

Answer 11

I'd definitely buy one if it was cheaper or not much difference in price from your average car. Cars that are damaging to the environment seem to be cheaper at the moment than the 'environmentally friendly' cars - where is the logic in that? It should be the other way round!

More people would buy them if they were cheaper.

Answer 12

The world needs people like us to be sympathetic about our environment. Yes Doug, to foster the ideals that would bridle those unthoughtful actions that would weary (quite eventually) ourselves, and the generation to come.

So I imagine, we ought to start making and driving these cars ourselves, overtake them in traffic, then watch them catch up...

Answer 13

I guess they have to be appealing as well as sensible. If they looked like an MX5 and went like greased lightening you wouldn't have a problem selling them really. Put a near naked girl on it and most men will at least look - that's not new. I just want a smart easy car to drive that looks and sounds good. I drive Japanese because the price is right for the style and quality - and it never breaks down. Women are more practical I guess.

Answer 14

Make a stylish looking car thats cheap to buy and run and tax, but can still do the speed ( not that i condone speeding) just realisticly thats what most people buy a car for, to get them from A to B in the quickest time possible!!
As long as its a normal car i.e doesnt look like a spaceship or something your nan would drive. I think you'd find it pretty easy to make people buy an environmentally friendly car.

Answer 15

Do what the French and Spanish governments did a couple of decades ago and give people two thousand quid for their old bangers to be used against the purchase of a more environmentally friendly car. I think at the time that was probably related to boosting their car manufacturing industries than helping the environment. Probably no longer an option as this is not the kind of step the UK Government likes to take.

Answer 16

have one but it cost ....make them cheaper ......

Answer 17

Reduce Road Tax
Reduce petrol tax
Reduce Insurance
Reduce price of cars
In short make it more affordable to buy , run and maintain them.
Some cars now have £35.00 per year road tax but are expensive to buy, which defeats the object to owing green cars.

Answer 18

making them just as reliable as petrol/diesel cars e.g. not having to stop and charge it up every two minutes like you do with those crappy electric cars, cheaper and to look like regular cars

Answer 19

Quit riding their a**e about it, and at least try to make them as good as the best petrol car (while being cheaper to run + as good or better range) .......... and less like a "clown car" like this piece of cack reviewed by Jeremy Clarkson in The Times:
http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/lif…

the main thing to bare in mind is that to alot of people, a car is more than just a thing with wheels to get from A-to-B.... and prefer their car to have some character to it (like a Ferrari or a classic British sportscar does)........ and not just a characterless "milk float" that at best is barely capable of movement.

Answer 20

Raise fuel mega !

Answer 21

I believe new drivers should be targeted, i mean it would be easier with them, as they would not have developed a strong opinion against this topic. So maybe offering these enviromentally friendly cars at affordable prices for students or 1st time car buyers would encourage alot of people, and then the trend would be followed amongst their friends! Consumers need something to act as a bait, to motivate them.