§ Sir CHARLES HENRYasked the President of the Board of Trade what are the reasons for differentiating between motor cars driven by electricity and those driven by gas or petrol; it the use of electricity for propelling cars entails a consumption of fuel; and whether economy of electricity is as important as economy of gas?
§ Mr. WARDLEThe number of electrically propelled cars in regular use is very small, and is unlikely to increase in view of the great difficulty of obtaining accumulators, for which a priority certificate from the Ministry of Munitions is required. Economies of electricity and gas are equally important, but the supply of electricity required for driving motor cars does not necessarily entail an additional consumption of fuel, as accumulators arc usually charged from generating stations during a period of light load. The use of gas for driving motor vehicles involves the employment in the manufacture of gas containers and fittings of labour and material which are urgently required in other directions, and in view of the large and rapidly increasing demand for the use of gas for purely private or pleasure cars, hitherto driven by means of petrol, it was decided to impose restrictions upon the purposes of use of cars by means of gas.