I don't know if it's because I'm rather close to the United Kingdom (about a $19 Ryanair flight away) or is it true that the 2030 ICE ban has made the country move way faster than others.
Our BEV sales tracker says the UK showed an 11.6% BEV market share last year, growing 76% over the year before. Last month, they were already at 17.7% BEV share (link).
And, although locals might disagree, you can see from afar that there's also a lot of real-thought-through policy gearing towards EVs, at least compared to laggards around where I live.
This is one of these policy efforts.
The UK government, specifically the Department of Transport, published its EV infrastructure strategy, called Taking Charge. Here's the:
For a lot of these insights. I rely on my good source from the UK, Tom Riley, who writes the weekly The Fast Charge newsletter. I recommend subscribing here to join the British EV info-field. And no, he doesn't know I'm shouting him out here. Surprise!
This is how the public charging locations vary in the UK currently:
Here are some takeaways from the strategy:
- The 2030 vision is to "remove charging infrastructure as both a perceived and a real barrier to the adoption of EVs". Good mission statement: check.
- £1.6B ($2.1B) committed towards UK's charging network, hoping to reach over 300,000 public chargers by 2030, 10x what it is now.
- Legally binding standards (rules) are set for charging operators:
- They need to meet 99% reliability standards for 50kW+ chargers by 2024. (uptime!)
- Use a new 'single payment metric' so people could compare prices across networks.
- Standardize the payment methods for charging, so people don’t have to use a multitude of apps.
- People will need to be able to get help and support if they have problems with a charger.
- All chargepoint data will be open, people will be able to locate chargers more easily.
- Remember Kate's problem with bp pulse I wrote about last week? Well, this shouldn't happen now...
- Significant support focused on those without access to off-street parking, and on fast charging for longer trips.
- £500M for public chargers, including £450M to the LEVI fund that boosts projects like EV hubs and on-street charging. I'm planning to look into the different on-street charging projects soon to learn, lots of innovations I've seen in the UK.
- Pledge to address any barriers that private sectors might have, like local councils delaying planning permission & high connection costs (!).
"The Government’s policy is for a market-led rollout" and other notes on the report make it rather clear that the infra strategy relies heavily on private leadership that should make the charging networks work and expand with the help (and rules) of the government.
Also, local authorities seem to be empowered and seen as the leadership of the program, especially through the Local EV Infrastructure Fund.
Now, bp pulse has done a great move and announced its own £1B ($1.31B) investment into developing the charging network over the next 10 years, which the government happily shared along with its own infra plan. Good marketing?
If you've read all of my rant above and find the UK's moves interesting, you'll love the 10 takeaways of this policy from Tom's perspective (here).
Now it all comes down to execution.
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