UK government wants to make 300,000 EV Charging Points by 2030

The UK government has announced a plan to increase the number of public electric car chargers tenfold by 2030, equivalent to “almost five times the number of fuel pumps on our roads today”.

The expansion of the government’s ‘electric vehicle infrastructure’ strategy – backed by 1.6bn – will see around 300,000 public electric charging points installed across the UK.

A 500m fund will be used to create “high quality, competitively priced public charge points for communities across the UK”; A figure that includes £ 450m for the ‘Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure’ fund, which aims to increase road charging for EV hubs and driveways.

UK government make 300,000 EV Charging Points :

There is an existing ‘Rapid Charging Fund’ which aims to create 6,000 ‘super-fast’ chargepoints across the English Motorway by 2035, while ministers have ‘promised’ to look at the hurdles faced by private chargers for expansion.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, “Clean transport is not only good for the environment, it is another way we can reduce our dependence on external energy supply.” “It will also create new high-skilled jobs for our automotive and energy sectors and ultimately secure more sustainable and affordable motoring for all.”

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders – a body representing the automotive industry in the UK – called for an increase in UK public charging points just last month.

SMMT boss Mike Howes said: “Consumers are already convinced of the car, with its ever-increasing choices, thanks to the billion-pound manufacturer’s investment, but the charging infrastructure must keep pace with the rapid growth of sales of these cars.

“The EV infrastructural strategy points in the right direction, solves the problems of the current customer’s charging experience and creates a nationally integrated, locally distributed plan aimed at ‘creating before the need’.”

Paul Wilcox, managing director of Voxhall, said: “While we welcome the government’s electric vehicle infrastructure strategy, we see it as a missed opportunity to reassure customers by enforcing mandatory targets on roll-outs of UK charging infrastructure.

“It is imperative that the infrastructure can keep pace with market demand, or indeed lead to demand, to allay consumer fears of ‘charging concerns’ and accelerate the electrification of UK roads as quickly as possible.”

Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy

The Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy includes new standards and legislation that will be introduced to improve drivers’ experience using public charging points.

Commenting on the report, the Prime Minister said: “We are moving forward with a plan to help the British people go electrified, facilitating travel across the country through our expanded charging network.

‘Clean transport is not only good for the environment, it is another way we can reduce our dependence on external energy supply.

“It will also create new high-skilled jobs for our automotive and energy sectors and ultimately make more sustainable and affordable motoring safer for everyone.”

In addition to setting targets for the infrastructure scale, the strategy outlines a new standard and legislation that will be introduced to improve drivers’ experience using public charging points, which is notoriously unreliable and confusing for electric car owners.

Charging operators will be required to provide real-time data to enable customers to check the status of the device and compare prices and receive unpaid payments.

Plans for fast charging points will require a 99 percent reliability rate.

Charging point operators will be required to provide real-time data to enable customers to check device status and compare prices and receive unpaid payments.

Transport Secretary Grant Shaps said: ‘No matter where you live – whether in the city center or in the countryside, north, south, east or west of the country, we are turning on the electric switch and making sure no one is left behind. Back in the process.

‘Everyone knows the scale of the climate challenge before us, and decarbonizing transportation is at the heart of our agenda.

“So we’re confident that by the end of this decade, the country will be eV-fit for future generations, revolutionizing our charging network and putting consumers first.”

A major ongoing concern is that this amount of charging points can put pressure on the national grid.

Commenting on the report, Graeme Cooper, Head of Future Markets at National Grid, said: ‘We will work closely with government, industry and regional networks to map out where critical grid capacity is needed.

“The national grid is ready to go fast enough to place the right wires in the right places to block the network for all road transport in the future.”

Will 300,000 chargers be enough by 2030?

The sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans will be banned in the UK from 2030, under the government’s strict proposal to help the net reach zero.

Carmakers are outlining their own reflective strategies when they become the only electric business, many of whom plan to discontinue the availability of petrol and diesel models in their range before the end of this decade (when carmakers read our report on this) going electric)

This means that in the run-up years to the 2030 period, EVs will probably increase significantly.

Plug-in vehicles – including pure electric and plug-in hybrids – are responsible for one in six new vehicles already registered in the UK based on sales figures for 2021.

Last year alone, 190,727 pure-electric cars entered the road. Add plug-in hybrid cars to the equation and 305,281 cars with plugs have been registered in the last 12 months.

This has raised serious concerns about how far the charging infrastructure is lagging behind in keeping pace with EV sales.

An analysis by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders found that there are currently 32 electric vehicles per public charger in the UK – a proportion that is expanding, up from 16 EVs per device last year.

It can be argued that most EV charging is done at home – although various reports suggest that this is probably due to the fact that most electric car buyers live in affluent areas and at home along the driveway.

For one-third of UK property owners without off-street parking, there are very few options for relying on public networks of devices. And for the Prime Minister to reach his net zero goal, a reasonable solution must be implemented for them without the facility of charging at home.

This leaves many internal questions as to whether the promise to offer 300,000 public devices will suffice.

Infrastructure :

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders says device installation is lagging behind, with 32 electric vehicles on the road at each public charging point.

Nicholas Lyce, RAC’s head of policy, said: “It’s gratifying that the government recognizes the value of making contactless payments mandatory and will set itself ambitious reliability targets at the point of charge.

‘Many current and EV drivers are concerned that the charging units will become out of order when they come to charge their vehicles, so it is very important to address this.

“While the government’s expectation that 300,000 chargepoints will be available by 2030 may sound impressive, we are concerned that this will not be enough to force drivers to switch to an electric vehicle before the 2030 ban on new gasoline sales. Diesel car. ‘

Edmund King, president of the AA, said disciplining our charging infrastructure was “vital” for the government and warned that “there is still much to be done to understand the number of directors, and importantly the reliability of charge posts.”

James Atwood, editor of the EV website Move Electric, added:

“This gap has become increasingly clear in the last two years as sales of electric vehicles have been in line with expectations, but the number of public charging points has not. The number of electric vehicles available on the road is estimated to have halved.”

He welcomed the news of investment in infrastructure before 2030, but said that the details were “still short”.

“Before investing a few thousand pounds in a new electric car, many buyers will want to know how many charging points there will be, where they will be, and whether charging speed expansion will be available,” Mr Atwood said.

government take a more strategic lead :

This chart only shows the availability of fast devices in each region, showing that EV owners in Scotland have the best access to the fastest charge points. Northern Ireland lags far behind in terms of total and fast device availability

Melanie Schaffelbotham, co-founder of the charging app Zap-Map, says the government’s biggest goal is to ensure that charging devices are evenly distributed across the country, highlighting that Scotland and London currently support far more than the scattered availability of devices. In Wales and Northern Ireland.

‘The more drivers make electrical changes, the less proportionally there will be a home charger and consequently rely on the public network for daily charging.

‘This is where local charging initiatives are important, whether it’s an overnight charging or a low-powered on-street system for local charging hubs.

“In parallel, in order to provide high-speed, reliable charging for all, the fast-charging network on the N-Route needs to grow with more charging points in each location.”

Ian Plummer, Commercial Director of Auto Trader, said the plan outlined in the report placed a lot of responsibility on councils to develop their own infrastructure, adding: “We would like to see the central government take a more strategic lead.”

‘While today’s ambition to charge infrastructure is fulfilled, EV sales are unlikely to keep pace with the expected growth, so we urgently need this investment to give those drivers confidence.

‘We need to keep in mind that we are asking people to make drastic changes in behavior without financial reasons.

‘The government has decided not to follow the successful financial incentive models adopted by the Norwegian choice [where all purchase taxes on EVs are removed so their price is equivalent to an equivalent petrol car]; At the very least, it will eliminate the hassle of buying an EV and make it easier to live with them critically. “

Mr Plumer added: ‘If people are going to buy an EV, they should look at the available charging stations, not the rows. The problem is compounded by the government’s short-sighted approach to incentives for EV buyers.