Government needs to ‘turbocharge’ EV infrastructure and incentive schemes

The House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee has published its report ‘EV strategy rapid recharge needed’.

The Committee is calling on the Government to “turbo-charge the charging infrastructure rollout by reviewing “outdated and disproportionate” planning regulations and tackling delays in the rollout of key public funding programmes.

It called on the government to tackle the disparity in upfront costs between electric and petrol and diesel cars, by introducing targeted grants to support consumers buying affordable models.

It also wants to ensure charging is reasonably priced, convenient, and reliable by equalising VAT rates for domestic and public charging.

And it called for investment UK recycling to ensure that recycling is undertaken by responsible operators, and that the UK is able to recoup as many of the critical materials contained in EV batteries as possible for its own domestic production.

The Chair of the inquiry, Baroness Parminter, said: “Surface transport is the UK’s highest emitting sector for CO2, with passenger cars responsible for over half those emissions.

“The evidence we received shows the Government must do more – and quickly – to get people to adopt EVs.

“If it fails to heed our recommendations the UK won’t reap the significant benefits of better air quality and will lag in the slow lane for tackling climate change.”

However, progress is not happening fast enough, and major barriers remain.

The Committee found that EVs make up about only 3% of all cars currently on UK roads.

They are still more expensive than their petrol and diesel counterparts and the availability of public chargepoints across the UK is highly variable.

Many consumers face “considerable anxiety” around whether and where they will be able to charge EVs reliably, affordably, and quickly.