MOTOR dealers criticised the Government for not going far enough in its tax breaks for electric vehicles.
Electrically powered vehicles are now exempt from first registration tax, effectively halving their price, after last month's Budget speech by the Financial Secretary Sir Hamish Macleod.
But it emerged yesterday that ''hybrid'' vehicles, which have small fuel engines to produce electricity for an electric motor, do not qualify for the tax break.
A Finance Branch spokesman said: ''The exemption applies to 100 per cent electricity vehicles.'' The chairman of the Motor Traders' Association, Mike Rushworth, said he had been unaware the Government was treating the two types of vehicle differently.
''I think that is unfair. Hybrids should become a bridging stage between fuel engine vehicles and electric vehicles. There should be a tax break for hybrids,'' he said.
