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Rollout of electric vehicle chargepoints to be accelerated

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New measures to support electric vehicle drivers from the government’s Plan for Drivers have launched today (5 February 2024), including grants for schools, cash for councils and new proposals to boost chargepoint numbers.

Technology and Decarbonisation Minister, Anthony Browne, will launch support for greener schools in Nottinghamshire today, with a new grant providing up to 75% of the cost to buy and install chargepoints, up to £2,500 per socket, up from the previous £350. 

Paid for by the Department for Transport, the grant forms part of the Workplace Charging Scheme and is available for state-funded schools, colleges, nurseries and academies to boost the chargepoint facilities for staff and visitors. This could also help schools to generate revenue by making their chargepoints available to the public.

The school’s grant is for state-funded schools and education institutions, which must have dedicated off-street parking facilities – applications can be made online. Independent schools may apply for funding through the Workplace Charging Scheme and the Electric vehicle infrastructure grant for SMEs. 

The government is also delivering the £381 million Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund to local authorities across the country. The first capital payments for charging projects have been approved to 3 local authorities from East Sussex to North Yorkshire, and 2 London boroughs, bringing the total funding for these areas to more than £ 14.2 million. The funding will support the installation of thousands of new chargers, ensuring the rollout continues at pace to support drivers in every area of the country.

Through our LEVI capability funding, almost 100 dedicated EV officers have been newly recruited to support chargepoint procurement. To aid local authorities in building a skilled workforce and delivering their charging projects, the government is also launching the electric vehicle infrastructure (EVI) training course for their officers, which will open to all local authorities from mid-March following a successful trial. 

Technology and Decarbonisation Minister, Anthony Browne, said:

We’re getting on with delivering our Plan for Drivers, and this latest set of measures will mean EV owners everywhere benefit from easier and more convenient access to chargepoints. 

This government has already spent over £ 2 billion to ensure a smooth switch to EVs, and we’re committed to supporting drivers as we transition towards net zero in a proportionate way that doesn’t burden working people.

More and more drivers are making the switch to electric vehicles, with fully electric vehicles accounting for over 16% of the new UK car market in 2023, according to industry statistics. The number of plug-in vehicles in the UK has also risen to over 1.2 million, of which 770,000 are fully battery-electric, meaning more and more drivers are making the switch.

As this number continues to grow, government is investing alongside industry in EV infrastructure to ensure we meet our climate change commitments, while charting the fairest path to net zero which does not unnecessarily burden families.

New laws recently came into force to provide EV drivers with easier and more reliable public charging, mandating that prices across chargepoints are transparent, easy to compare and that a large proportion of new public chargepoints have contactless payment options. This comes as over 53,000 public chargepoints have been installed across the UK, demonstrating the progress that has been made in the switch to electric. 

Minister for the School System and Student Finance at the Department for Education, Baroness Barran, said: 

This is an exciting opportunity for schools across the UK to become part of an ongoing move towards a greener public sector. Schools engaging with this grant will be supporting the development of green infrastructure, helping to improve their local environments.

Developing a greener education estate is a key element of our sustainability and climate change strategy. The expansion of this grant supports our ambition to improve the sustainability of our schools in the ongoing move towards net zero.

In addition, the government is today launching a consultation to look at ways to speed up chargepoint installation across the country. The proposals would give EV chargepoint operators the right to carry out street works using a permit rather than a licence. 

Permits can be issued much faster, taking days instead of months, and are significantly cheaper to obtain than licences, reducing costs for operators and speeding up the chargepoint rollout for drivers.

While the consultation runs, a new good practice guide has been published by the government to improve consistency in processing licence applications across different areas. 

These are the second package of measures delivered from the government’s Plan for Drivers and follow last month’s announcement of a crackdown on disruptive roadworks and better digital information to boost sat-nav accuracy.

To further deliver on our Plan for Drivers’ commitments, we have published a list of common questions and answers on the transition to EVs, including battery range and chargepoint availability across the country.

To provide further flexibility to individuals and organisations wishing to install EV charging outlets, we will shortly consult on removing the 2-metre limitation so that wall-mounted outlets and upstands can be installed anywhere within an area lawfully used for off-street parking.

Councillor Neil Clarke MBE, Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment at Nottinghamshire County Council, said:

Through initiatives like the Electric Vehicle Cable Channel Pilot Programme and improving local electric vehicle infrastructure, we’re working hard to help residents without off-street parking, along with road users in Nottinghamshire, to charge their electric vehicles.

We are continuing with our ambition to make Nottinghamshire healthier, more prosperous, and greener. Initiatives like this are a step closer to achieving these ambitions.

As a county, we must do all that we can to protect the environment, and that’s why we welcome this continued government support, which helps us to roll out electric vehicle infrastructure more widely across Nottinghamshire.

These measures come following the UK’s world-leading path to reaching zero emission vehicles by 2035 coming into effect earlier this year. The zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate requires 80% of new cars and 70% of new vans sold in Great Britain to be zero emission by 2030, providing certainty to consumers and industry – helping speed up the rollout of chargepoints.

The government’s approach to EVs has already attracted record investment in gigafactories and EV manufacturing, including:

  • Nissan’s recent investment of over £3 billion to develop 2 new electric vehicles at their Sunderland plant
  • Tata’s investment of over £4 billion in a new 40 GWh gigafactory
  • BMW’s investment of £600 million to build next-generation MINI EVs in Oxford
  • Ford’s investment of £380 million in Halewood to make electric drive units
  • Stellantis’ £100 million investment in Ellesmere Port for EV van production

Last year, the UK and EU agreed to extend trade rules on electric vehicles, saving manufacturers and consumers up to £4.3 billion in additional costs and providing long-term certainty for industry.

In addition, the On-street residential chargepoint scheme (ORCS) is open to all UK local authorities. 

Grants are also available to help businesses make the transition through the government’s Workplace charging scheme (WCS), as well as people in flats and rented accommodation through the Electric vehicle chargepoint grant.

Families could use electric vehicle batteries to power homes and save on bills as government backs new charging technologies

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The government announces funding for new charging technologies, which mean families could use their electric vehicle batteries to power their homes and save on bills.

Families could soon save hundreds of pounds on energy bills by using electricity stored in their electric vehicles (EVs) to power home appliances such as fridges and washing machines – thanks to new 2-way charging technologies being supported with government funding.

Households could power their home appliances as a result of the development of bidirectional charging, which enables electricity stored in a vehicle’s battery to flow back into the grid or back into the home and workplaces, which can then be used to power other devices.

This builds on existing smart charging technologies, where EVs can be charged when electricity prices are lower overnight. Families could then use these Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) technologies to save money on their bills by selling the electricity back to the grid when prices are higher.

Businesses could also benefit from the V2X technologies by storing electricity in their fleets of EVs and using it to power their operations at a later date. These technologies will also help make it even easier to rely on renewable technologies such as solar panels, with less need for fossil fuels to provide for surges in demand by allowing stored renewable energy to be sold into the grid instead.

Four projects are today receiving a share of £4.8 million of government funding to support their work testing and implementing these innovative technologies.

Minister for Affordability and Skills Amanda Solloway said:   

The prospect of families being able to store energy on their doorstep in electric vehicles and use it to power their homes is incredibly exciting.

This is exactly the sort of ingenuity and creativity that makes the UK one of the world’s most innovative nations.

By backing this technology, we could save families hundreds of pounds a year, while also supporting jobs, investment and growth.  

Transport Minister for Technology and Decarbonisation Anthony Browne said:

We’re continuing to support drivers, and this innovative new development is the next step in levelling-up our charging technology, which will benefit many households across the country.

This government has already spent over £2 billion in the transition to electric vehicles and our charging network is growing at pace, with 44% more public chargepoints than this time last year, meaning drivers can charge more easily than before.

The successful companies are:

  • Hangar19 Ltd in Chelmsford – will demonstrate a 3-socket bidirectional charger, making a wider range of EVs available for energy flexibility and bidirectional charging
  • 3ti Energy Hubs Ltd in Leatherhead – will combine a quick-to-deploy bidirectional charging hub with a solar canopy and energy storage battery, house in recycled shipping containers, which can make access to bidirectional charging available in more destinations, including vehicle depots
  • Otaski Energy Solutions Ltd in Gateshead – will trial their bidirectional EV charger to enable fleet EV operators to access energy in a flexible way which could deliver savings in line with electricity supply and demand surges
  • Electric Green Limited in London – will work with QEnergy to trial wireless V2X technology with a fleet of 20 delivery vehicles at Royal Mail

Today’s funding builds on existing government funding for electric vehicle charging, such as the £70 million pilot scheme, announced at COP28 in Dubai. This will also boost the number of ultra-rapid charge points at motorway services.

It comes as some of the world’s leading car manufacturers are choosing the UK as their home to develop the latest electric vehicles and the battery technology. They include:

  • BMW, who have announced a £600 million investment to transform their Oxford plant to build the electric Mini
  • JLR (a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Motors Limited, part of Tata Sons) – Tata Sons are investing £4 billion in a new gigafactory to create up to 4,000 highly skilled jobs
  • Nissan, who have announced they are delivering up to £2 billion investment to create a new electric vehicle manufacturing hub in Sunderland – helping put more zero emission vehicles on UK road

The UK has also committed to ending the sale of all new non-zero emission vehicles by 2035 to support the delivery of net zero. This ambition, combined with government support for industry through technologies like V2X, is helping cement the UK’s world leading position in the design, manufacture, and use of zero emissions vehicles, which will provide economic growth by stimulating employment, investment, and exports.

This follows the Prime Minister’s proportionate and pragmatic decision to delay the ban on new diesel and petrol cars from 2030 to 2035 – bringing the UK in line with countries such as Canada and Spain – which will support manufacturers and families in making the switch to electric, providing flexibility while also helping to grow the economy.

Dr Marco Landi, Head of Technology and Innovation, Electrification Services, JLR said:

We are delighted to be collaborating on this project with partners and the UK government to be able to accelerate and pioneer V2X technology. This funding will drive our work to make charging simpler, greener and cost effective, which is key to our all-electric future.

Working together with industry-leading partners, we are developing a complete EV ecosystem, from batteries to charging, supporting our net-zero transformation.

The programme is part of the overarching up to £65 million Flexibility Innovation Programme, supporting the efficient and flexible use of electricity, within the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP).

Location data can help build the EV chargepoint network of tomorrow

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New report sets out how location data can support local authorities to make good decisions about where EV chargepoints should be installed.

By 2030, the sale of new petrol and diesel cars will be phased out and by 2035 all new cars and vans will be zero emission. The transition to EVs will be enabled by a dependable, well located public charging network that local authorities are ideally placed to help deliver.

Location data can arm local authorities with evidence to rollout a public charging network that gives current and prospective EV owners the confidence to make their journeys, whether in a densely populated city or the countryside. Drivers need to have the same confidence that they can charge their EV as they have that they can refuel their current petrol or diesel vehicle, so they can go about their business unimpeded. This is critical to the growth of the economy, one of the Prime Minister’s five priorities.

Viscount Camrose, Minister, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, said:

The transition to electric vehicles is central to the government’s plan to decarbonise the transport sector, keep the UK at the forefront of clean transport and tackle pollution, all while seizing the potential for growth and job creation in the UK’s growing EV industry.

Local authorities and the wider sector should continue to embrace new location data and analysis to accelerate the targeted rollout of chargepoints so that drivers can find and access reliable chargepoints wherever they live.

The location of chargepoints is as important as absolute numbers. This report explores the breadth of location data and applications available to support local authority decisions about where to install new chargepoints and identifies five opportunities to better use existing location data, as well as new sources of information to:

  • understand the location and availability of existing chargepoints by making chargepoint operator data standardised and consistent
  • understand consumer charging behaviour and travel patterns by using population movement data
  • identify the location of EVs by using commercially-held data about leased vehicles
  • identify existing electricity network capacity through better use of distribution network operator data
  • identify areas without off-street parking by using proxy data

Transport networks need to become more efficient, greener and safer. The Geospatial Commission has been leading a multi-year programme highlighting the opportunities for advanced geospatial applications in the transport sector. The programme has identified how location data can support the future of mobility and next generation transport networks and called out ways to maximise its impact. In 2021 we published ‘Getting to the Point’ which explored the role of location data to help model future demand for chargepoints, identify suitable sites, create a seamless consumer experience and track rollout.

This report highlights that the location of chargepoints is as important as absolute numbers. Consumers want chargepoints to be where they need them and for them to be easily accessible. Local authorities are ideally placed to identify local needs and play a fundamental role in facilitating private sector investment and ensuring all communities have access to reliable public charging infrastructure, especially on-street charging points. They must make informed decisions about how many, which types and where chargepoints will be installed, based on demand and site suitability. Location data and applications can give valuable insight.

Martin Tugwell, Chief Executive, Transport for the North, said:

High quality location data plays a critical role in enabling better decision making on how society can make a rapid transition to achieving a low carbon economy.

Location data and analysis is a vital component of our work at Transport for the North to underpin activities outlined in our regional Strategic Transport Plan, such as supporting our local authorities EV charging planning and delivery, and facilitating private sector investment to drive EV chargepoint rollout.

Steve Ward, Decarbonisation Programme Manager, Transport for Wales, said:

Good quality location data is essential to us helping the public and private sectors collaborate to identify and develop sites for electric vehicle charging. We have worked with datasets from a large number of sources to develop modelling tools that indicate which locations are more suitable for commercially-funded charging facilities, and which could be unlocked by targeting investment in improving electricity supply capacity.

We are sharing the outputs of our mapping with all stakeholders, including the electricity Distribution Network Operators, who are using this data to plan ahead of anticipated demand for charging ‘hotspots.

£3.27 million allocated to upgrade Electric Vehicle charging network in Northern Ireland

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A £3.27 million bid to upgrade the Electrical Vehicle charging network across Northern Ireland will see the entirety of the public charging network enhanced for the benefit of communities and electric vehicle users.

Plans for the funding allocation include:

  • replacing 100 fast chargers; the equivalent of 200 charge points
  • upgrading 20 unreliable fast chargers to rapid chargers, more than doubling the existing capacity
  • introducing five high-power charging hubs in key locations, which can charge multiple vehicles at the same time

This would deliver high power charging hubs for the first time in Northern Ireland. The aim is to encourage people to adopt Electric Vehicles and promote green travel, as we transition to cleaner and greener modes of transport.

Drivers to benefit from £20 million EV chargepoint boost

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Drivers will have better access to electric vehicle chargepoints across the country, through a new pilot backed by £20 million of government and industry funding announced today (24 August 2022).

Through the innovative Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) pilot scheme, local authorities and industry will work together to create new, commercial EV charging infrastructure for residents, from faster on-street chargepoints to larger petrol station-style charging hubs.

The rollout supports the government’s drive to encourage more motorists to go electric, which can save drivers money on fuel and running costs, and improve air quality as the country moves towards net zero.

The winners of the pilot fund are:

  • Barnet
  • Dorset
  • Durham
  • Kent
  • Midlands Connect (with Lincolnshire as a lead authority)
  • North Yorkshire
  • Nottinghamshire
  • Suffolk
  • Warrington

The funding is expected to deliver over 1,000 public chargepoints across the areas.

The scheme will help residents without private driveways to have better access to EV chargers, as well as growing the charging network across the country, supporting the nation’s uptake of zero emission vehicles and enabling more people to drive and charge without fear of being caught short, no matter where they are.

The pilot is backed by £10 million of government funding shared among the 9 winning local authorities in the first tranche of the planned £450 million scheme, with winning pilot bids supported by an additional £9 million in private funding. A further £1.9 million will come from public funds across local authorities.

Decarbonisation Minister Trudy Harrison said:

We want to expand and grow our world-leading network of EV chargepoints, working closely with industry and local government, making it even easier for those without driveways to charge their electric vehicles and support the switch to cleaner travel.

This scheme will help to level up electric vehicle infrastructure across the country, so that everyone can benefit from healthier neighbourhoods and cleaner air.

Edmund King OBE, AA president, said:

It is essential that more on-street chargers are delivered to boost the transition to zero emission vehicles for those without home charging.

This injection of an extra £20 million funding will help bring power to electric drivers across England from Durham to Dorset. This is one further positive step on the road to electrification.

RAC head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes said:

We know that there are many drivers who do not have driveways or any form of off-street parking, so investing in streetside charging is an absolute necessity. Drivers can also look forward to the prospect of local charging hubs which will give them somewhere to quickly charge their vehicles without needing to drive any considerable distance. The goal must be to spark electric vehicle uptake by creating an excellent charging infrastructure that caters for everyone’s needs.

The scheme will allow local authorities to provide feedback on how to grow the network and the role the private sector can play.

The new LEVI fund builds on the success of the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS) which has seen nearly 2,900 chargepoints installed so far with funding provided for approaching 10,000 additional chargepoints in the future.

Following growing demand from local authorities, we’re also announcing a further £10 million in funding which has been brought forward for this year, bringing this year’s ORCS funding to £30 million to help maintain ongoing installations.