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A government minister has branded plans to install just two electric vehicle (EV) charging points at the new motorway service area due to open next year at junction 1 of the M1 as ”shocking”.
Speaking during a debate on EVs in the House of Commons last Thursday, Conservative MP Mark Pawsey said, that while operator Moto eventually plans to roll out 24 charging points at its new service area in his Rugby constituency, there will be just two when it opens next summer.
He said: “We might think that a new motorway service area would be an ideal place to include an extensive range of charging for people on their journeys, halfway between Manchester and London, but when it opens in July next year it will have just two charging points.
“We need to make sure that we build in enough charging facilities for the growth in the market.”
Responding to a call by Pawsey to increase the number of charging points planned at the Rugby service area with National Grid and network operator Western Power, junior business minister Andrew Stephenson said it was a “shocking example”.
But work is under way to ensure the adequate provision of electric-capacity connections at motorway service areas, he said: “The key task over the next year is to sustain and strengthen our collaboration in the sector, as we stride towards our ambitious emissions targets for road vehicles and beyond.”
The minister added that the government, which convened a roundtable meeting at No 10 Downing Street with the National Grid and motor vehicle manufacturers to discuss the development of the EV infrastructure network last week, “accept that we need to go further and faster” on the issue.
Pawsey was backed up by his fellow Conservative backbench MP and BEIS select committee member, Antoinette Sandbach.
She said: “The network is not fit for purpose…and poor provision of charging infrastructure is one of the main barriers to the growth of the market.”
Earlier during the debate, its sponsor MP Peter Kyle said the devolution of responsibility for installing EV charging points to councils had resulted in a “postcode lottery”.
“Government has absented itself from the opportunity to become the driving force in making access to publicly available charging stations ubiquitous, and has instead devolved responsibilities to cash-strapped local authorities.”
Pointing out that a quarter of local authorities have not installed a single EV charging point in the last year, he said: “That is simply not good enough.
“We need a revolutionary approach to charging infra- structure —not the incremental one that we have right now.”
Kyle also called for the ban on the sale of internal combustion engine powered cars and vans in England to be brought forward from 2040, the target date set by the Department for Transport in its ‘Road to Zero’ policy paper last year, to 2032, the date set by the Scottish government.
“If the UK is serious about being an EV world leader, as our government claim to be, we must bring forward a clear, unambiguous target to achieve zero emissions from cars and vans by 2032.
Kyle’s call for accelerating the phase out of diesel and petrol vans and cars was supported by Lilian Greenwood, chair of the transport select committee.
“We know that the replacement of the whole vehicle fleet would take 10 to 15 years. If we aim for the end of the sale of vehicles only in 2040, we will have no hope of meeting zero carbon by 2050,” said the Nottingham South Labour MP, who also called for the government to go “faster and further” to decarbonise heavy goods vehicles, which are not covered by the 2040 target.
Luke Pollard, Labour MP for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport, said that in order to focus the minds of industry and government, the target for decarbonising vans and cars should be legally binding, rather than a “mission”, as outlined by ministers in ‘Road to Zero’.
Defending the government’s 2040 target, Stephenson said: “2040 is an ambitious but achievable target, which represents the right balance between environmental ambitions and deliverability, recognising the need for a period in which industry can develop the necessary products and we can address some of the barriers.”
But he added there is “no reason” why the UK “cannot go faster than the targets that we have set ourselves”.
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