EVs may currently only make up 4% of all the cars on the road, but the government is predicting that within just five years that proportion could grow to 25%, and 50% within the decade.
Speaking exclusively at Forecourt Trader’s annual Summit earlier this week, Stephen Rippon, a senior official at the government’s Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV), said that while “EVs are currently just a few per cent of the overall vehicle parc”, the thinking inside Westminster is that “steady growth will add up, and we anticipate that by 2030 around a quarter of cars on the road will be EVs, and by 2035, potentially around half.”
Rippon explained that while the switch to electric cars “affects a lot of different people in society”, the government’s “main focus now is manufacturers”.
Last year some 19.6 per cent of all new cars registered were electric, against a legally mandated target of 22%. Car makers faced fines of £15,000 per car sold over that quota, though a facility that allows them to buy ‘credits’ from car makers that exceeded the 22% target, as well as other ‘flexibilities’ permitted in the rules, meant that no manufacturers were fined for not selling enough electric cars.
Rippon explained that the rationale for the ZEV mandate is that vehicle emissions aren’t “a marginal part of meeting the UK’s legally binding carbon targets: cars and vans are almost 20% of UK emissions…The largest single measure in the UK’s carbon project.”
He said that a consultation on whether new hybrids, and if so what type, can be sold between 2030 and 2035, had recently closed, and its results would be published as a matter of priority. He cautioned though, that aside from this significant detail, “Government is not proposing to change the vast majority of the mandate.”
In addition to focussing on car makers, Rippon said that chargepoint infrastructure is another key focus:
“A big part of trying to make the transition more predictable is to encourage investment in chargers. Industry investment in charging has had a major impact over the last few years, and particularly from 2023.”
Highlighting that the last two years have seen “a transformation in the number of open-access chargepoints” on the strategic road network, Rippon said that the number of these had grown from 1,600 in January 2023, to over 4,500 in July 2024.
Despite this, issues remain, he said, pointing out that 30% of motorway service areas have yet to meet government targets that they should have at least six open-access ultra-rapid (i.e.150kW-plus) chargepoints on site.
Similarly, while much of the strategic road network of motorways and major A roads is well served by chargers, Rippon said that there remain “gaps” in charging provision, known in Whitehall circles as “cold spots”. These are primarily concentrated in the north and west of the country: “Particularly in the north like the A66…and the west, near the border of Wales like the A49, and also routes into the south west.”
Echoing recent warnings from a senior boss at chargepoint firm Fastned that infrastructure issues are hampering chargepoint rollout, Rippon admitted that “power constraints” are a big part of the problem.
“There can be challenges around energisation delays, slow activations of chargepoints as a result of long lead-in times for connection upgrades; connection processes working with distribution network operators can be quite complex; lengthy grants for approvals… There are also high standing charges, which can be a barrier for some operators; land access issues, so difficulties securing wayleaves [contracts allowing infrastructure to be placed on land not owned by developers] in order to put installations in, and also slow planning and approval processes.” Uneven, seasonal demand in tourist hotspots is also behind some of these cold spots, he added.
Rippon said, though, that plans are afoot to allow for “simplifying planning consents, bringing more chargepoints into permitted development rights”. Other work going on behind the scenes includes: “Improving access to grid connections with the aim of improving the process that distribution network operators use, to make it as easy as possible to put in chargepoints”.
OZEV is seeking feedback into the reasons for EV charging infrastructure ‘cold spots’ on major A roads.
