Wednesday, October 9, 2024
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EV charging sector responds to Miliband claims

The UK electric vehicle (EV) charging sector has hit back at energy secretary Ed Miliband’s claim in an interview that it was one of the issues holding back the country from transitioning to EVs.

In an interview with the BBC Today programme, Miliband said that charging was one of the key problems that was holding back the electric vehicle sector.

But Vicky Read, the CEO of ChargeUK, the body representing the charging sector, has hit back at the claim, writing to Miliband about current progress and how much the industry is doing to accelerate the transition.

Read said that only last week the charging sector hit another key milestone – 70,000 public chargers. This news meant that it was on track with the National Infrastructure Commission’s predictions to hit 300,000 public chargers by 2030. Therefore it was “disappointing” to hear the sector being blamed for holding back the transition.

She wrote: “The charging sector understands the key role it plays in that transition, to provide convenient and affordable charging. And we are getting on with that job, committing £6bn of investment through to 2030.”

In addition, Read added that the investment was “taking place ahead of demand” and even profitability – and was underpinned by the ZEV mandate, which had given “the sector confidence to invest” and investment was “bearing fruit”.

She continued: “The public charging network is growing 42% year on year, with one public charger being installed every 25 minutes. This, combined with around 850,000 home and workplace chargers, means there is close to one charger for every EV today.

“If that exponential rate continues, the public network will grow quicker than the number of EVs coming onto our roads.”

Read also pointed to independent sources, such as Autotrader, who described public charging as a “bright spot” in the transition, and the BVRLA giving the sector a “green light” this summer.

Last week, as reported in Transport + Energy, EVA England, which represents EV drivers, said that two thirds of drivers think the public network has improved in the last 12 months.

Even the Department for Transport’s own analysis revealed that charging availability was not a key problem for the transition, Read argued.

She also said it was “disappointing” to hear discussion about drivers being “ripped off” by charging operators, who are “motivated to offer affordable charging” because we know this is a key consideration in drivers’ decisions to switch.

Read highlighted the issues which cause more expensive charging, and were outside of operator’s controls, including VAT being charged at 20% compared to 5% at home, and standing charges rising 1000% in the past 18 months, as well as wholesale prices being the highest amongst the EU28.

She also explained how Department for Transport Minister Lillian Greenwood attended the body’s reception last month and said the government “will back you all the way”.

Read concluded: “The very opposite of backing us is a watered-down ZEV mandate, arbitrary targets that will do nothing to accelerate rollout, and charging infrastructure described a key problem holding back the UK’s transition to EVs – these are the quickest ways to see investment in charging infrastructure dry up and the roll out ground to a halt.”

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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