🕒 Article read time: 2 minutes
Government’s plan to expand EV chargepoints tenfold is a vital step forward in UK’s journey to net zero, Logistics UK says
A new EV Charging Infrastructure Strategy to improve the consumer experience at chargepoints, published last Friday (25 March 2022), will help to make transitioning to zero emission fleets a reality for logistics businesses, Logistics UK has said.
The plan, which aims to ensure commercial vehicles have access to public chargepoints, will mandate that these points have high standards of reliability and will address current barriers – including network capacity, charging costs and access to a sufficiently broad recharging network across the strategic road network – to help the road transport sector decarbonise in confidence.
Government has unveiled plans to support the UK market in order to reach 300,000 public electric vehicle (EV) chargepoints by 2030. This number, it maintains, is equivalent to almost five times the number of fuel pumps currently on our roads.
Half a billion pounds will be invested to bring high quality public chargepoints to communities across the UK, the bulk of which (£450 million) will be held in a Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) fund, which will help finance projects such as EV hubs and innovative on-street charging.
The existing Rapid Charging Fund, worth close to one billion pounds (£950m), will support the rollout of a minimum of 6,000 high powered super-fast chargepoints across England’s motorways by 2035.
The private sector is also playing a key role in paving the way for electric vehicle charging. The UK’s most-used charging network company, bp pulse, announced its own plans last Friday to spend £1 billion pounds on developing charging infrastructure in the UK, supporting hundreds of new jobs.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “The scale of the climate challenge ahead of us all is well known and decarbonising transport is at the very heart of our agenda. That’s why we’re ensuring the country is EV-fit for future generations by the end of this decade, by revolutionising our charging network and putting the consumer first.”
Denise Beedell, Public Policy Manager, Logistics UK, said: “For some time now, Logistics UK’s members have called for more equitable ways of funding the necessary expansion of the UK’s electricity capacity to support the decarbonisation of the UK’s commercial vehicle fleets. The strategy addresses this significant barrier to adopting a net zero strategy, by improving the infrastructure required for the electrification of commercial vehicle fleets will ensure that logistics businesses can work to reach net zero as soon as possible. We look forward to seeing the details of how the electricity network will be transformed to ensure cost effective and timely connections this spring, and the Ofgem-Government EV Smart Charging Action Plan this summer.”
*www.logistics.org.uk/environment
Published On: 31/03/2022 16:00:55
Comments Section
If you are a Logistics UK member login to add comments.
