Government has ‘mountain to climb’ on EV charging

The government has not “sufficiently thought through” how the charging infrastructure will expand at the pace required to keep up with its new timetable for phasing out diesel and petrol cars and vans, MPs have warned.

In a new report, entitled ‘Low Emission Cars’, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said it is “not convinced” that the government is “on track” with rolling out this “crucial” infrastructure.

It said that charging is one of “several barriers” that need to be addressed in order to increase the number of new ultra-low emission cars from the 11 per cent of new registrations recorded last year to the government’s target of 100 per cent by 2030.

The report said that while the number of charging points is increasing “rapidly”, many more will be required within a “very short” period of time to support the envisaged growth in electric cars in the UK.

It said the Department for Transport (DfT) has a series of assumptions about the types of journeys people make and how they charge their electric cars, such as the “vast majority” taking place at home during the night.

However, the committee said the department has not yet produced an estimate for how many charge-points the country will need to keep up with the anticipated increase in the number of electric cars as the UK nears 2030 ban on the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicle cars and vans.

Instead, it said the DfT regards the government’s role in developing the charging infrastructure as limited to stimulating private investment and unblocking market failures.

And while the department has committed to targeting six rapid charge-points at every motorway service station by 2023, and up to 10 to 12 at larger sites, the report said it has not focused “much” attention on charging for people that do not have off-street parking.

As a result, the report concluded that the committee is “not convinced” the government has “sufficiently thought through” how the charging infrastructure will expand at the pace required to meet its ‘ambitious’ timetable to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles.

The committee said it also not convinced that the DfT and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) are doing enough to the remedy the “uneven take-up” of EVs across the UK by ensuring all communities have access to the appropriate charging infrastructure, for example in rural areas or urban areas without access to off-road charge points.

It warned of the “risk” that some regions get left behind during this transition to electric vehicles, including those in rural areas. The report cited data from the English Housing Survey indicating that 33 per cent of households in England do not have access to off-street parking, which increases to 68 per cent for people living in social housing.

The committee also recommended that the DfT and BEIS should set out plans for managing the complex transition to electric cars and ensure they can be monitored with regular reports on progress towards the 2030 target, including the accessibility of charging infrastructure in each region or local authority areas.

Meg Hillier MP, chair of the PAC, said the government has a “mountain to climb” to make all new cars in the UK low emissions by 2030.

She said: “Once again what we’ve got is a government throwing up a few signs around base camp – and no let-up in demand for oversized, petrol- guzzling vehicles.

“This isn’t about more targets with no plan behind them inevitably getting missed. It’s about averting the real-world challenges that are bearing down on all of us. The government needs to get the country behind it and lead the way in the global race against climate change.”