EV drivers ‘need right to request chargepoints’

Electric vehicle (EV) drivers should be given a “right to request” an on-street chargepoint from their local authority, a right of centre thinktank has urged.

In its new report, “Driving uptake: maturing the market for battery electric vehicles”, Bright Blue has outlined a mixture of new fiscal and regulatory policies to get the market for battery EVs fully off the ground.

The regulatory recommendations include a new obligation on councils to install on-street EV chargepoints within three months when requested by residents unless there are reasonable grounds to object.

Drivers would be required to show proof of purchase of an EV to their local authority as well as other criteria like whether they have access to off-street parking, the walking distance to other existing or planned chargepoints and how heavily these are occupied.

The chargepoints could either be owned by the council itself or tendered out to a private organisation, the report suggests. The operation of the chargepoint could also be tendered out to a charging network.

The report also recommends making it mandatory for all petrol stations above a certain size to have at least three rapid chargepoints by 2023.

It says petrol companies should be able to make a “reasonable contribution” to the £20-40,000 cost of installing the chargepoints, while the government could pay for the necessary grid connections through its Rapid Charging Fund.

Other recommendations in the report, which has been published following the government’s recent pledge to ban the sale of internal combustion engine cars and vans from 2030, include tweaking the terms of the Plugin Car Grant to speed up the uptake of EVs.

The report proposes that the value of the Plugin Car Grant should be increased from £3,000 to £5,000 from this April 2021.

But it says the value of the grant could be gradually reduced at regular intervals before being phased out completely from October 2023.

Introducing this timetable would encourage households and businesses to purchase new EVs as soon as possible because delay would mean receiving less subsidy.

In addition, it would mean no cliff-edge when the grant ends as Bright Blue warns will currently happen with the current stop date of October 2023.

The report also proposes the introduction of a used vehicle Plug-in Car Grant of at least £2,000 to help drive uptake of EVs among low earners.

Other recommendations include an immediate mandate stating that all new vehicle purchases for the public fleet must be battery EVs.

Patrick Hall, senior researcher at Bright Blue and co-author of the report, said: “is imperative that the market for battery electric vehicles – both new and used – grows substantially over the next decade if the UK is to meet its legal net zero 2050 emissions target.

“The common characteristics of an electric vehicle owner include being affluent, well-educated, middle-aged and male. It is important that less well-off households are not left behind in the electric transition, and as such, policies to bolster the second hand market are critical. Focussing on the used market for battery electric vehicles will achieve both better progressive and environmental outcomes.”