The UK government has confirmed that it will provide £20 million to help local authorities install on-street electric chargers in the next two years.
The funding, which is double the investment made last year and quadruple that made in 2019, can be used by local authorities to pay for up to 75% of the cost of installing EV infrastructure.
According to the Department for Transport, the latest funding boost is set to double the amount of government-supported electric chargers in the UK to nearly 8000.
As part of the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme, the government claims to have installed almost 4000 chargers since 2017.
AA president Edmund King said: “Good progress is being made but in order to help current and future EV drivers, more charge points will need to be installed. For the 40% of households without designated off-street parking, finding a viable, cheap and simple-to-use solution is key.”
With the recent announcement that the government will ban sales of new ICE cars from 2030 and the £20 million boost, EV ownership is predicted to increase sharply in the next 10 years.
Electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles accounted for more than 10% of all new car registrations in 2020, more than a threefold increase from 2019.
In the past five years, the number of public chargers has grown by nearly 500%, with a total of 18,265 available in the UK as of July last year.
However, despite improving infrastructure, research suggests that the availability of chargers is still lagging. Last year, public charge points per EVs hit their lowest level to date. According to analysis by energy consulting group Cornwall Insight, there were just 0.28 public chargers per EV, compared with nine per EV in 2018.
Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders boss Mike Hawes called for “massive investment” in EV charging last month. “We need a massive investment in infrastructure of something to the tune of £16 billion, with a lot going into public on-street charging.
"We’re still in the early adopter mode of EV sales but rapidly getting beyond that. One of the key things holding people back isn’t the range now but the availability of charging infrastructure.”
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Leave the subject to the government is the best solution, the UK government have made it's decision now it is time to see their plans. We do not need infrastructure anxiety as well as range anxiety.
Honestly, £20 million is laughable.....just a drop in the ocean to what is needed.
Much made of the 500% increase in chargers, but 500% of bugger all is still bugger all !
Thats without taking into account how many of them are out of service.
You cannot ( as I have said many times before), implement an arbitary ICE cut-off date without a clear infrastructure plan - throwing a few million here and there to garner a cheap headline, isnt a cohesive strategy to acheive the state goal.
Trust Mike Hawes to come up with a preposterous figure like this!, there are some out there that, no matter what you say or do, that your not doing enough, maybe these keyboard Chancellor's know how to solve it?
The article mentions 40% of households.
There are 25 million in the UK.. 40% is 10 million.
If a charger costs £1000 to install, I make that £10 billion.
Imagine the reaction of people with driveways who have to pay for their own charger when everyone else gets a free one.
Spot on Naval Reserve....exactly wjat I have been saying, now backed up by the latest Autocar article 'EV rollout too slow to support 2030 ICE ban' Funnily enough the number £10 billion surfaces again!