Asif Ghafoor, CEO of Be.EV, looks at what the next government should do to boost the roll-out of EV charge points.
Public electric vehicle (EV) charging seems to be the forgotten issue in this year’s election. The transition to EVs is one of the key ways we’ll reach net zero by 2050, but thus far the Government has failed to properly roll out a solid infrastructure of public EV chargers to facilitate it.
Given perceptions of range anxiety are one of the main reasons people are hesitating to transition to EVs, a change in course should be a key point in the next Government’s net zero policy.
It hasn’t worked so far
The Government’s existing policy has mainly been to give local authorities grants from the Local Electric Vehicle Investment (LEVI) fund to expand their public charging provision. Authorities then have two years to hit a target number of chargers.
However, this has been a complete waste of time and needs to be scrapped. The fund might give money to install chargers, but it doesn’t provide the money or time to give local authorities the requisite skills. Instead, it means they spend a lot of time faffing around unnecessarily spending money on outside research.
The obsession with a total number of chargers being installed is unhelpful. It leads to far too many cheap lamp post chargers being installed, which are not only slow, but will become nothing more than street clutter in the next three years.
How will we counter perceptions of range anxiety if the only chargers we’re putting in take 12 hours to charge EVs?
What comes next?
First, the Government should set clear targets for local authorities to provide a certain amount of power as opposed to the total number of chargers. This will encourage a greater focus on rapid and ultra-rapid chargers – a.k.a chargers that drivers are calling for.
District Network Operators (DNOs) should also be fined if they don’t hit these targets – we need to put pressure on them to get them to speed up the transition.
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Second, there should be a simple mandate that compels every local authority to open up 50% of their land for private companies to install EV chargers. They don’t have the capital or expertise to do it themselves.
There’s precedent for this. The Government previously introduced legislation to compel authorities to accept planning permission for telephone masts under 15m tall unless they had a good reason not to. Why can’t the Government do the same for public EV chargers?
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the Government needs to step aside. We should have less Government involvement. There’s enough capital and expertise in the UK that all the Government needs to do is simplify things and let the private sector get on with it.
Change the narrative
While the private sector gets on with rolling out the public EV charging infrastructure, what the Government can do is introduce initiatives that make people feel good about EVs again.
There’s been a lot of ink spilled on costs, range anxiety and misinformation – the Government needs to make people focus on the positives of the EV transition to distract from the misconceptions.
First, we need to bring the ban on the sale of new ICE vehicles back from 2035 to 2030. The moving of the ban to 2035 didn’t change the obligation on car manufacturers to ensure that 80% of car sales are electric.
Therefore, the 2030 ban is perfectly achievable and won’t cost the Government a lot. What it will do is create a huge psychological boost that will get people feeling good about EVs again.
Some drivers are focused on the negatives of switching to EVs, so the Government should start increasing the incentives to get people focused on the positives.
We can look to Norway for a few examples of easy schemes that have worked wonders. They made it so EV drivers don’t have to pay on toll roads and also made it free for EV drivers to park in local authority car parks. These were cheap, but the feel-good factor they created can’t be understated.
This has a point of bigger importance. The UK has the expertise and capital to become world leaders in EV charging infrastructure. If we can create an environment where this opportunity becomes a reality, we can also export this to other countries, and create jobs and investment along the way.
We don’t need to look at this as a cost. This could make the Government and the private sector money while accelerating the net zero transition. And it’s not that difficult. What are we waiting for?
For more on what local government stakeholders want from the next government, check out the following articles from our NextGov series:
NextGov: What the next government should do for children’s services
NextGov: Scrapping the two-child benefit cap
NextGov: Revitalising local democracy
UNISON: To whoever forms the next government…
NextGov: Boosting social mobility
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