THE Ford Motor Company has asked the British Government for more tax incentives, including scrapping vehicle excise duty, to encourage consumers to buy “green” cars.

Senior Ford executives were in Downing Street last night to meet the Prime Minister and are understood to have raised the subject with him personally. Ford, which announced this week that it would invest £1billion in environmental technology in the UK, wants the Government to help to persuade consumers to buy more eco-friendly vehicles.

The company is also negotiating with Transport For London to get a congestion charge exemption for vehicles that emit low levels of carbon dioxide.

Roelant de Waard, chairman and managing director of Ford in the UK, said: “We are absorbing the added cost of the technology by keeping the price of eco-friendly vehicles the same as existing models. We want the Government to also add an incentive.”

Speaking next to a life-size ice sculpture of a Ford Focus at the London Motor Show, Mr de Waard told The Times: “The Government could exempt these alternative fuel cars from excise tax, which is a very viable option.”

Ford has pledged £1 billion to develop a new generation of eco-friendly vehicles in the UK. It is championing flexible fuel vehicles, which can run on regular petrol or bio-ethanol fuel.

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