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Matthew Adams, Transport Policy Manager at the REA, explores the ongoing rollout process of EVs, discussing in depth the upskilling of the workforce, the need for government collaboration, and ultimately, why he feels positive about the aim to reach net zero by 2050.
What is your role at the REA?
I look after the interests of nearly one hundred members within our EV forum. I deal with a number of areas, ranging from topics such as chargepoints and their installation, through to software issues, green finance, the second hand market, energy flexibility and grid connection.
What are your key objectives for 2023?
We had two objectives at the start of this year. One was to ensure that the consumer experience regulation consultation resulted in strong changes that would improve the consumer experience when charging in public. Indeed, since the start of this year, we’ve seen great developments in the public chargepoints regulations laid in parliament. This was a three-year process and something I’ve been working on consistently, including years of consultation with industry figureheads. This meant there were almost no surprises in the regulations that have come through, and a lot of our members’ concerns were addressed as well.
The other objective for the year was to ensure that the ZEV mandate was as strong as possible. We’re yet to see the results of the last consultation, but we’re hopeful that it will at least keep to the 2030 and 2035 phase outdates.
What kind of profile do your members have?
It’s a broad spectrum. We represent chargepoint operators both big and small, including the likes of Gridserve, Osprey Charging and Trojan.
We also have smaller startups and a number of green finance and legal teams interested in the EV space. In addition, amongst our member types are single issue groups, and fleet operators.
Whilst obviously a very diverse mix of profiles, our members share a common goal of getting consumers using EVs as quickly as possible. Most of the time it’s not too difficult to find a broad consensus that we can work on and work towards together. Despite this generally being the case, I do find it particularly rewarding when a member approaches me with an idea or issue which hasn’t been explored yet, and helping them develop it, providing them with a more tailored experience as a result.
What are some of the most recent successes that you’ve been particularly proud of with the REA?
The public chargepoint regulation which has been laid this year has all been really ambitious, which is of huge benefit for the sector as a whole, as it means that we’ll have contactless payment on all rapid chargepoints, as well open data sharing to make it easier for people to see chargepoints are available or not working. It also ensures strong reliability across all chargepoints on the of rapid charging network.
A personal victory for me was the launch of our EV report in parliament in July. Looking to 2030, the piece touched on a number of policy barriers to EV charging, installation and energy security, whilst proposing how we can we get chargepoints in the ground very quickly, simultaneously ensuring that they’re accessible, easy to use and that we have the right skills to actually accelerate deployment.
The fact that we received public support from politicians such as the likes of Chris Skidmore, Gavin Newlands and particularly Ian Stuart, the Chair of the Transport Committee, was very pleasing. This level of endorsement for the report was a nice win, and we’ve seen very positive public feedback on top of that.
How do you think the current EV infrastructure roll out is progressing?
There are really two parts to this rollout. The first area is private chargepoints, either found at home or in the workplace. Within this space, we have found that currently over 80% of EV drivers can charge at home, so for the most part, the infrastructure is robust and effective.
Public charging is the second type of infrastructure and has faced more criticism from the media. I think the charging infrastructure is strong, and it’s more about finding a way to highlight this to the general public as well as media sceptics.
On the whole, I feel the sector doesn’t publicise our successes enough. The rollout is really progressing very well, and as the data shows, year-on-year the number of chargepoints in the ground is going up by between 30 to 40%.
Of course, there is always more that can be done. I think improving the consumer experience with chargepoints will be crucial. The REA is campaigning for mandating on accessibility; it’s astonishing, but in over a hundred years of having petrol stations, we’ve never had one with disabled access. At the moment, wheelchair users can request help when charging, but we do not have the infrastructure which allows them to charge by themselves. We see no reason why charging points should have these limitations, and the area of accessibility is one we’re passionately lobbying to make better.
Do you think the challenge of accessibility will continue to be the main obstacle in the EV rollout, or will we see new issues develop in the next decade or so?
Mandating accessibility might take a while, as it requires a change in law. Regarding the chargepoint roll-out, the focus will be largely on the grid connection side, which can also cause some difficulties.
For example, some of our members will be quoted over a year to get a chargepoint in the ground, and even sometimes two or three years, which slows the process down entirely. Even once the chargepoint is provided to them, the wiring and installation can demand another few years of regulatory approval from local authorities. There are quite a few areas where we aim to make operations smoother and faster, and while the challenges will continue to evolve, as of now these are the main barriers to progress.
How does upskilling seem to be developing from your perspective?
On the EV side, it’s very debatable, depending on which report you read, as to whether we already have skills gaps now, or if this will only become a problem in the future.
I think this reflects the fact that we’re not making the most of the opportunities we have to fill these areas immediately, and I imagine by 2030 we will start seeing skills gaps across the industry. This will include the battery technicians who repair cells, as well as installers and engineers who ensure chargepoints are as liable as possible.
This is not to say there aren’t positives. There are currently enough skilled engineers in the UK to handle the rollout, and some really reputable upskilling programmes already available. One of our members’ most skilled chargepoint engineer previously worked on fruit machine repairs in pubs. If someone has the right mindset and approach upskilling is often not too difficult.
In regard to apprenticeships, we are seeing less success. We’ve found that for new people coming into the industry, it’s difficult to hone the right skills, partly because you need to have the practical skills as a foundation before learning new techniques.
There is also quite a lot of variation in the technology. If your eventual place of work has different tools and equipment to where you were trained, there will have to be an element of learning all over again. The REA will be producing a skills report in the coming months, which will be addressing some of these common limitations within the workforce. If we don’t take advantage of the time we have now to address gaps, these issues will only become more problematic moving forwards.
How effective do you think both central government and local authorities have been in supporting the EV roll out?
A recent freedom of information request revealed that 70% of local authorities have no charging action plans. In order to develop these sorts of strategies, many of these local authorities require more funding and more skilled workers, which the LEVI Fund has addressed in part. Ideally, we will start to see a much higher percentage of local authorities fulfilling their EV obligations in the coming years, though there will continue to be issues surrounding the retainment of talented workers within the public sector.
From a central government perspective, on top of supporting local authorities through funding, they have placed a very ambitious set mandate. However, there is still good reason to feel there has been some stagnation on policy making. Even regarding the ZEV mandate, we expected it before the summer recess, and are still waiting for a response now.
There are a number of policy areas that could be developed further, such as vehicle to grid, or decarbonising HGVs and fleets. Following the departure from net zero being a priority, we’ve found our expectations of what government will deliver has become increasingly uncertain. With the ZEV mandate, we saw two secretaries of state contradict each other on what the content will be and disagreed with the central minister behind the writing of the mandate itself. Clearly, there needs to be more consensus in government than we currently have, so hopefully this long-rumoured cabinet reshuffle may fix this.
What has been the general consensus so far amongst the public regarding the EV rollout, in your impression?
My impression from most people who own EVs already has been overwhelmingly positive. They enjoy driving them and have no issues regarding charging. However, there does seem to be a negative sentiment amongst media towards them, which is still affecting public perception. We really want to bring people along with us, rather than forcing people into the transition.
Hopefully, we’ll be able to convince people through the ZEV mandate, or by making EVs more widely available, and ideally cheaper. We also would like to see the second hand and lease market develop more, so that people can be more confident in EVs and the infrastructure.
There is a real lack of understanding at the moment around what charging options are available, particularly regarding street charging. Lots of people are aware of using lamp posts, but there’s also chargepoints that you can connect to your home from the curb, so that you’re not paying the extortionate 20% VAT that one would pay for public charging, instead only paying 5%. There are also various smart tariffs you can explore.
These sorts of solutions generally aren’t well publicised, and we really we need to solve that information failure through the wider dissemination of the various charging options.
Do you have any particular concerns about reaching net zero?
I’m really excited about the prospect of reaching net zero by 2050. Effective grid connections will be of great importance, because this won’t just affect EVs, but also heat pumps, solar panels, battery storage, onshore wind, offshore wind and even the actual manufacturing plants which supply the grid itself.
I’m aware of some companies which have been quoted with outrageous amounts of time to connect to the grid, so they won’t even contemplate building electric vehicles for the next five years.
Having said that, National Grid are very confident that we’ll have enough energy to power everything to be net zero by 2050. I’m not too concerned, and it’s really a case of building everything quickly enough. If we can do that, I see no reason why we can’t reach net zero by 2050.
Matt Adams spoke on an elemental webinar this week, on delivering EV infrastructure. You can watch the session on demand here: crowdcast.io/c/delivering-ev-infrastructure
