The EV charging industry has welcomed extensions to two grants schemes supporting home and workplace charge point deployment – plus, new proposals from the Government to improve the reliability of public charging infrastructure, make data more available to consumers, and make payments more streamlined.
The EV Homecharge Scheme and the Workplace Charging Scheme are critical programs for supporting homes and businesses wanting to go electric. Changes to the schemes include making it easier for consumers living in apartments to access the grant.
The UK’s EV charging sector, comprised of those operating, installing, and manufacturing chargers along with those providing payments, telecoms, and other services to the industry, has been working hard to ensure consumers are able to use an open, reliable, and simple-to-use charging network.
The national charging network is comprised of over 40 charge point operators using a range of equipment, back-office software, and payment systems. It is a new industry which is experiencing rapid growth in order to meet future demand.
The REA (Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology) supports Government interventions that will:
- Ensure consumers have clear bills and can understand what they have paid for in a charging session,
- Ensure that chargers are well maintained so that consumers can be confident that the chargers will work as expected,
- Ensure basic market information is accessible to consumers so they can locate chargers, understand how much sessions cost, and thereby make decisions around which chargers they want to use,
- Ensure drivers can access any charger simply, with more charging networks ‘roaming’ with each other to reduce the number of apps and cards needed to access different networks.
It is important that Government intervenes just enough that the sector is regulated, but not so much that it prevents market growth, development and innovation.
The sector is also keen to ensure that disabled drivers and more vulnerable persons are able to easily locate charge points in their area that are suitable.
Commenting on the consultation, Daniel Brown, Head of Transport at the REA, said: “An open, reliable, and simple-to-navigate charging network is crucial if we are to keep the confidence of individual drivers and fleets and take electric vehicles into the mainstream.
“We welcome Government setting baseline expectations and ‘guard rails’ for the industry to deliver on.
“The EV charging sector, however, is a complex blend of telecoms, electricity provision, payments, real estate, and hardware and we would caution against interventions that would stymie innovation that will benefit consumers and be the backbone of emerging British brands.
“We look forward to working with Government on the detail around how reliability will be monitored, payments more standardised, and exactly what types of data will be made open, and to whom.”
Commenting on the extension of the grant schemes, Daniel Brown said:
“The EV Homecharge Scheme and Workplace Charging Scheme have helped make charging accessible and affordable to private drivers and businesses over the years. We welcome the extension and expanded scope of these schemes. The changes show that Government is closely listening to, and working with, industry in order to achieve our common goal of Net Zero.
