Fleets will miss out on a financial sweetener to help put more environmentally friendly vehicles on UK roads.

The Government announced a plan to promote ultra-low carbon transport by offering a cash incentive of up to £5,000 towards buying electric and plug-in hybrid cars from 2011.

But businesses will miss out on the Government handout after the Department for Transport (DfT) confirmed the initiative is only aimed at private motorists.

Transport secretary Geoff Hoon explained that cutting road transport emissions was a key element to tackling climate change.

“Less than 0.1% of the UK’s 26 million cars are electric, so there is a huge untapped potential to reduce emissions,” said Hoon.

But, with HMRC estimating there are approximately 1.1 million company cars in the UK, the Government has been accused of missing an opportunity to kick-start the push for zero-emission transport.

“Businesses buy more than half of the new vehicles sold in the UK each year and pay taxes like everyone else, so we cannot understand why they should be discriminated against in this way,” said John Lewis, chief executive of the BVRLA.

However, Hoon and business secretary Peter Mandelson insisted that the scale of incentives the Government had announced would help make the UK a world leader in low-carbon transport.

“We want the British motor industry to be a leader in the low-carbon future and Government must direct and support this through what I call new industrial activism,” explained Mandelson.

But fleets will have to rely on limited field tests through initiatives such as the Cenex public sector Low Carbon Vehicle Procurement Programme, which is being funded by the DfT.

Fleets are making some moves to quicken the uptake of electric vehicles themselves, with Mercedes-Benz trialling 100 electric Smart cars across 60 UK fleets and Renault-Nissan and LeasePlan announcing a new electric vehicle collaboration.

Meanwhile, the Government’s strategy also includes plans to provide £20 million for charging points to help develop a network of five yet to be announced ‘electric car cities’ in the UK.

There are already 80 Elektrobay charging stations in London operated by Brighton-based Elektromotive, with another 40 installed in various locations across the UK.

And by the end of May, 2009, it expects to be operating 100 Elektrobays across the capital.