I've said it before, so I'll say it again... We need to stop focusing on discounting electric vehicles and start looking at the charging network.
In February the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, announced several new infrastructure initiatives like the Lower Thames Crossing, road upgrades and a logistics park at East Midlands Airport.
She also announced a £55m fund to improve charging infrastructure, another positive move, which has since been upgraded to £63m according to Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander. But today we awake to the news that there will now be a £650m pot available for up to three years to help lower the costs of electric cars.
It's another massive howler from government who don't understand that the industry is already moving in that direction and that the way to make it move faster is to break down the barriers and fears that consumers have.
There are more than 1.25 million electric cars on UK roads but there's just over 80,000 public charging points. That means that owning an electric van or car is still only really available to those with a driveway or the ability to charger cheaply at work.
Public charging is expensive, so much so that rapid charging virtually outweighs the cost saving over an ICE vehicle. Government money would be far better off spent on reducing the VAT on public charging and funding a charging network that is already creaking under the strain.
While the re-introduction of an EV grant for cars will likely please many households who are looking to buy a new car in the next three years, there's no further clarification on how the Plug In Van Grant will be affected. It's due to run until April next year, surely this tranche of money for cars will mean an extension of the van grant?
Although I'm against the use of the money for any grants, be it car, van or truck, it would be an even bigger mistake to not extend the electric van grant, if passenger cars are still being funded. Both cars and vans are behind on the ZEV Mandate targets, but vans in particular are lagging behind. Throwing government money at the capital cost of electric vehicles is such an enormous waste.
We’ve all got to face up to the fact that electric vehicles are an inevitability and sugar-coating the capital cost of something that only a minority of buyers are currentely interested in buying is a misguided use of scarce public funds.
Stop the grants. Invest in charging.
