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Electric cars could play a major role in the shift to environmentally friendly transport, the government will reveal this week. As part of its long-awaited renewable energy strategy, to be published on Thursday, it will argue that there is massive potential in the UK for plug-in hybrids, for car batteries charged on grid electricity and for vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

The proposal is part of a £100bn scheme to reinvigorate Britain's flagging plans for cutting emissions of carbon dioxide. Developing cars to run on electricity is important because their energy can be derived from renewable energy sources, the strategy points out.

In Israel, which is developing a flourishing electric car industry, there are plans for solar energy to provide the power for charging batteries to run electric vehicles. In the UK, wind or wave generators would be used.

'Fossil fuels are going to run out; we're going to have to be driving electric vehicles,' said Robert Evans, chief executive of Cenex, a government-backed organisation that aims to introduce low-carbon vehicle technology. 'This is such an innovative idea it has caught a high level of imagination across the sector. If the motor industry invests in it, it has a real potential to move quicker than market forces might otherwise dictate.'

Cars currently generate about 20 per cent of the planet's output of carbon dioxide. Cutting that figure would have a big effect on climate change. Electric cars can also use energy to charge batteries at night when demand on the national grid is low.

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