Electric Vehicles (EVs) are the future of car travel. Governments around the world want to encourage their use. The UK government is the same. With a plan to reduce the UK’s CO2 emissions to 0 by 2040, EVs play a major role. However, there is not currently a correspondingly major take up of EVs nationwide. One reason for this could be the lack of EV infrastructure.
Charging Problems
When we talk about EV infrastructure, what we really mean is charging points. As with most low carbon vehicle technologies, the UK does not have enough charging points to make driving an EV particularly easy. The effective ranges of Electric Vehicles are improving every year. However, they are still not long enough to be completely confident of getting between charging points in the UK. If the government is serious about supporting low carbon vehicles, they must do more to develop EV infrastructure.
New Homes
One proposition to change how people perceive electric vehicles is to make people aware of them at home. New homes in suburban England could have to have EV charging points fitted during their construction. This policy could also be applied to office buildings. The hope is that by allowing people to charge their vehicles in more places, they will consider electric vehicles as more viable choices.
Alternative Ideas
EV infrastructure doesn’t just mean buildings. The government proposals could also require new street lights to be constructed with charging points inside them. Wherever on street parking will be available, so will EV charging points. The government hopes that this will help to implement its 2040 carbon free plan.
Future Engagement
We do not know how successful these plans would be in encouraging the take up of Electric Vehicles. However, it is clear that there is not currently sufficient EV infrastructure to allow significant number of people to feel confident using an electric vehicle. There are only around half as many EV charging points as there are petrol stations (4,476 to 8,500). Until this changes, it is hard to see enough people switching to Electric to meet governmental ambitions.