In a bid to make charging and driving an electric vehicle easier and cheaper, the government has doubled funding to £10 million for residential street chargepoints. It is also planning how it can improve providing drivers with real-time information on chargepoints.
At present, certain postcodes are better represented with chargepoints but the new funding aims to address this making it simple to use an electric car no matter where you are in the UK.
“Convenience is certainly key to driving the electric car revolution,” comments Andy Coulton, managing director of Prosol UK. “At present, refuelling a petrol or diesel vehicle is something we don’t think twice about. It’s just a case of finding the nearest filling station and purchasing fuel. Charging an electric car isn’t so straightforward for many.
“Investment in developing a robust and efficient infrastructure is vital to encouraging more of us to switch to electric cars. There are currently 30,000 electric vehicle charging stations in the UK. Installing new chargepoints – apparently up to 3,600 more via this funding – in residential areas will go a long way to making charging more convenient for drivers to charge at home or overnight.”
At the same time, the Department for Transport is exploring how best to make information about all public chargepoints, including locations and specific power ratings, openly available to drivers in a standard format. Its goal is to provide real-time information about chargepoints, detailing which ones are in working order and which are currently in use. It is expected that software or an app will be developed and incorporated into sat navs and route mapping apps.
Concludes Andy: “Following the recent news that a ban on petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles will now be implemented in 2035 rather than 2040, the government appears to be focused on leading the way and fulfilling its overarching objective of becoming the very first major economy to reduce emissions to net zero.