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The Renault/Nissan-backed electric car scheme, Better Place, led by environmentally-conscious entrepreneur Shai Agassi, has expressed interested in investing in electric cars in Denmark. Better Place has commissioned market research company Ipsos to find out about the interest in electric cars in five countries – USA, Canada, Australia, Israel and Denmark. Each of these countries are involved in Better Place's roll-out plans. The results indicate that Danes are quite interested in electric cars. The percentage of Danes interested in choosing an electric car as their next car is 40%. This is below the percentage recorded for Israel (57%), but above that in the US (30%). Interestingly, the figure went up to 70% when Ipsos asked people if they would be interested in test driving an electric car. It is not clear how much money people are expecting to pay for an electric car, however. In addition, the survey showed that 57% of Danes are worried about climate change and air pollution. 79% prefer that Denmark takes a leading position in the development of renewable energy.

Jens Moberg, who heads Better Place in Denmark, commented: "There is no doubt that the growing concern over climate change is helping to stimulate Danish interest in electric cars. Unlike petrol or diesel engine cars, electric cars can utilise CO2 neutral electricity from renewable energy sources and emit no CO2 or toxic flue gases. This makes electric cars a practical means of acting in a more climate conscious way without sacrificing comfort." Better Place are not the only ones planning to put electric cars on Danish roads however, The German car rental firm Sixt has announced that it is ready to launch hundreds of Citröen C1 electric cars on the Danish market in September this year, and a host of electric car manufacturers have expressed their intention to launch models in Denmark, including China's BYD, Saab and Volvo from Sweden, Tesla Motors from the US, France's Aixam, Germany's Mercedes Benz and the Reva Electric Car Company from India.

Source: Denmark.dk