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The Department for Transport has again doubled the amount of funding available for on-street charge point installations, pledging an extra £10m as part of a range of latest measures to encourage EV uptake.
Announced over the weekend alongside measures to boost active travel and accelerate e-scooter trials to avoid public transport overcrowding during the pandemic, the funding is being committed to the on-street residential charge point scheme.
The Government had already doubled the funding allocated in January, reaching a total of £10m. The latest increase means the full funding will allow local authorities to install up to 7,200 devices, making it more convenient to charge and own an electric vehicle.
The news has been welcomed by Pod Point. James McKemey, head of insights, said: “The Government’s announcement is a recognition of the challenges that persist in resuming widespread usage of public transport, whilst seeking to avoid pushing people back to polluting private cars. Of course, the private car remains the only viable form of transport for many journeys and, with this new on street charging fund, the Government hopes more drivers can make the switch to EVs and help to sustain the recent improvements to our air quality.
“While new funding is welcome, along with the flexibility in the way the funding can be deployed, we believe that most drivers are still likely to benefit more from home and/or workplace charging schemes.”
The Department for Transport has also committed to further efforts to encourage drivers to make the switch to EVs, including the upcoming launch of a consultation that hopes to make charging electric vehicles just as easy as filling up a traditional petrol or diesel car. It will explore measures such as requiring rapid charging points – which are fundamental for longer journeys – to offer contactless payment, improving transparency on pricing and giving drivers better access to information about the charge points available on their journey.
Despite the pandemic, the previously predicted increase in electric vehicle take-up is still expected to happen in 2020, following the introduction of the new 0% Benefit-in-Kind rate for battery electric vehicles. Latest new car registration figures show demand for fully electric vehicles has fallen much less than any other powertrain type.
Speaking last month, Erik Fairbairn, founder and CEO, Pod Point, said: “The new 0% BiK rate for fully electric vehicles is a powerful incentive to go electric. Before coronavirus it was expected to drive a massive increase in demand for company EVs as well as the charging infrastructure needed to support them.
“We think that once things start getting back to normal, we’ll still see this happen – the savings to the driver are significant enough that even historically low crude prices will be unable to change the equation. The tangibly cleaner air we’re experiencing during lockdown is also making many drivers and businesses look more closely at electric vehicles.”
Venson Automotive Solutions has also said that drivers are more likely to switch to EVs in the wake of the lockdown, as a result of increased awareness of the benefits of reduced air pollution – with nearly half of drivers now considering a switch to electric vehicles in the future. Research carried out by Venson has revealed 45% of drivers are reconsidering their plans for electric vehicles due to the radical improvement on air pollution across the globe from reduced traffic.
The only person who got all his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe.
Anything i post over three lines long please assume it is an article lol.
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You may of seen my remark in another thread about my local Morrisons having a couple of charging points installed recently and it’s got me thinking?
What is the point of these charging points in a suburbia supermarket where folk travel no more than 5 miles at the most to get there.
All the houses within the normal en-catchment of this Morrison have driveways or at least like me, a hard standing so if you were to have an electric car then I’d be quite confident to bet on the fact you would also have a charger for your car at home so don’t need one in the local supermarket.
Seems silly to be to waste a scares commodity on something that could be better off elsewhere like Motorway services stations or down town location.
Just food for thought.
Are they ever in use Chris?
I go on the principle that you can’t have too many chargers, I must admit Chris this I s the first time I’ve heard complaints about that.
Companies make a lot of decisions at corporate level so you might find a decision has been made without looking at the local areas demand for chargers. However it’s worth seeing if they are regularly used as it might surprise you.I think it very much depends on the Morrisons location, the one in Reigate is a secondary location for when the one nearest the M25 J8 with the awesome viewing point isn’t working.
The one in Worthing is at the end of the A24 & the A24 has lacked rapid chargers that work for a long time (although I note that the Shell Horsham one is finally working again).
Banbury Morrisons is close to M40 J11 so again a good alternative charger.
Morrisons have somewhere you can get a decent cheap meal, so it makes good sense to rapid charge whilst eating during a long journey.
However, you’ll often find these rapid chargers have been ICEd by selfish fossils & Morrisons aren’t interested in getting them to move their pile of polluting junk out of the way.
Chances are your both right with location and whoever or whatever company decided to put recharge points in Morrisons car parks approached Morrison on a Nationwide deal and did not look into where the supermarkets are actually located. There are only 2 Morrisons in Bristol, my local and one on the side of the M5 at Cribbs Causeway 17 miles away and can see the point of that one but not the where I am.
I see being within a mile or so of a major trunk road or Motorway is a good location.
I’m yet to see anyone use the chargers in my local but I think they’ve only been there a couple of months but will check every time I go by.
On the other hand I can’t say I’ve seen any electric cars parked on any drives around here including the newly built houses that come with a charger but of course that will change over the next 5 to 10 years if the coming recession doesn’t last a decade.?
Oddly enough I’ve seen a few Tesla’s on the roads around here but think there rich folk just passing through the area or coming to see how the poor live ?and wouldn’t dream of using a Morrisons in the middle of an old council estate even if 75% of the houses are privately owned now.
Oddly enough I’ve seen a few Tesla’s on the roads around here but think there rich folk just passing through the area or coming to see how the poor live ?and wouldn’t dream of using a Morrisons in the middle of an old council estate even if 75% of the houses are privately owned now.
I think you’ll find that the Tesla crowd tend to use the Tesla Supercharger network whenever possible on their longer journeys as they cost less or were free with the package in the older models.
Some supermarkets in my area (not locally as we only have 7kW chargers at the train station) have 7kW charge posts on I think the pod-point network, so if I pop to the Waitrose in Horsham I can park for free (thanks Blue Badge) and charge for a small fee, if I range over to the nearest Asda they have the 7kW posts too, and in towards London some of the supermarkets have lots of 7kW chargers that are relatively unused (Sainbury’s in Sutton comes to mind).
Local officials complain that our small town is dying, yet there’s no chargers in any of the local car parks so not a surprise that no-one would bother with this town when the surrounding towns have chargers. (wake up Waitrose, Sainsbury’s & M&S in Dorking).
Tesco seems to have the right idea in some areas by supplying a couple of Rapid chargers by their petrol stations, together with rows of free 7kW chargers in the parking areas of the supermarket (this is the VW project mentioned many months past). If you plug in to a 7kW charger whilst doing your weekly shop, you’ll maybe pull a few kWh of charge costing under £1 to Tesco and it’ll pay for your journey to & from that Tesco… same policy as “giving” 10p per litre on fuel when you spend an amount at Tesco, it gets you in the door.
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