One in Four Electric Cars Still Unclaimed
Out of the 507 electric cars that the state planned to hand over to social workers by May 2012, 129 are still up for grabs after the first application round where local governments were less than enthusiastic to sign up for the environmentally-friendly vehicles.
The first application round ended on September 3 and another one will be held in spring, according to the Ministry of Social Affairs.
The first batch of 50 Mitsubishi i-Miev battery-powered cars arrived to Estonia on September 30, wrote Postimees. According to the ministry, 25 of these will be handed over to Tallinn, 24 to Tartu and one to the Orava municipality in Põlva County.
Currently the vehicles are at a car dealership where they are entered into the vehicle registry and fitted with an anti-theft alarm system, floor coverings and special stickers, said Diana Lorents, head of communication at the ministry. The first five cars will be delivered to social workers on October 21 and the rest in the following weeks.
The purchase of the 507 cars was announced in March, when the government acquired them as part of a carbon credit deal deal with Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation.
Ingrid Teesalu