Most new electric cars launched

By 2030, sales of new cars and vans powered wholly by petrol and diesel will be banned, with hybrids to follow five years later.

Between now and then most new cars launched will be offered with some form of electrification, accelerating demand for charge points.

As a motoring journalist I test-drive as many as 100 new cars every year. However, living in the South West I’ve found that chargers are few and far between, meaning that a home solution is a necessity.

I can currently count on one hand the number of home charge points in my village, while the nearest public charger is four miles away at a service station.

Which is why my smart new Rolec WallPod:EV home charger is just the job, allowing me to charge pure electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) overnight.

With more than 10 years of experience in the  industry, Rolec provides charging solutions for the home, commercial locations, workplaces and fleets and has more than 50,000 in use across the country.

Ordering a Rolec WallPod:EV home charger couldn’t have been simpler. First, Rolec referred me to its nearest approved installer (SVE Electric Services, based in Bristol) who carried out a quick on-site survey to determine my preferred location and to check the electricity supply.

Rolec then asked me to choose from one of 24 colour combinations for my WallPod. Once that was done, SVE were back with my charger within a week and it was installed in around two hours. Related:

How do Electric Cars Work?

Then it was just a case of connecting the Kia Soul EV I was driving that week (one of the most affordable long-range electric cars on the market) via a Type 2 cable) and the charging could begin.

Eligible for OLEV (Office for Low Emission Vehicles) grant funding under the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS), the Rolec WallPod:EV home charger is easy-to-use, stylish, weatherproof and hard-wearing – an ideal entry-level electric car charging solution.

However, there’s still a massive charging infrastructure challenge. A recent report by the Policy Exchange think-tank said the UK will need 400,000 public chargers by 2030, up from 35,000 currently.

Then there’s the issue of where to locate chargers. I’m lucky because I have a garage with off-street parking, but it’s a different matter for motorists living in flats and terraces, for instance.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has announced a further £20m of funding for local authorities to install 4,000 more on-street charge points across the UK.

These will allow residents without access to off-street parking to charge their vehicles, but it’s still a drop in the ocean.

Additionally, the Department for Transport (DfT) says EVHS, which provides up to £350 towards a charge point, will continue in 2022 and be expanded to target people in rented and leasehold accommodation.

At the same time, the Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) will be opened up to small to medium enterprises and the charity sector. The changes will also mean that accommodation businesses, such as B&Bs, can benefit from the funding, boosting rural areas.

So, there is hope, but it’s a race against time. Oh, and I haven’t even tackled the issue of how electricity will be generated.

Visit https://www.knowcars.co.uk

More drivers than ever plan to ‘go electric’ when they next change their cars, but the high cost of EVs is slowing the switch to zero emissions motoring.

Nearly eight-in-10 drivers (78%) think that pure electric cars are still too expensive when compared to conventional vehicles of a similar size, claims research from the latest RAC Report on Motoring.

The good news is that 9% of the 3,000 respondents to the study said they intended to ‘go electric’ next time around, up from 6% in 2019 and 3% a year earlier.

But with the current retail price of new pure battery electric vehicles significantly higher than their petrol or diesel-powered equivalents, they remain out of many drivers’ price ranges, prompting most to say they would like more financial help from the Government.

More than half of drivers (53%) said they would like to see VAT on zero-emission vehicles either cut or abolished entirely, with a slightly smaller proportion (48%) favoring a scrappage scheme to make switching from a conventionally powered one to a battery-electric model affordable.

Three-in-10 motorists (30%) favor an increase to the current Plug-in Car Grant (PiCG) of £1,000, taking it up to £4,000, which is arguably the most straightforward policy change the Government could implement if it chose to.

Affordability isn’t the only factor affecting drivers’ decisions. They also want to know they can charge these vehicles up easily when they are away from home – vital for the estimated third for whom home-charging is not an option.

More than four-in-10 drivers (43%) say they want the Government to set a binding national target for access to public charge points, such as ensuring 95% of the population live no further than five miles from the nearest ChargePoint. Three-in-10 (28%) meanwhile believe the price of charging at public chargers should be capped.

The RAC Report on Motoring research also found the extent to which drivers believe the average range of battery-electric vehicles needs to increase before they will choose one over a petrol or diesel model.

For the second year running, drivers said they would want a car to have a range of some 375 miles – roughly the distance from Cambridge to Edinburgh

However, the RAC study claims more than half (58%) of car trips are under five miles in length and the average journey is just 8.4 miles long.

“If the Government really wants to stimulate demand for electric vehicles quickly, then it either has to boost the Plug-in Car Grant or remove or cut, VAT for a fixed period of time,” said RAC data insight spokesman Rod Dennis.

“While removing VAT would lead to lower list prices, it would also cost the Government a lot more and maybe more favorable to people choosing more expensive models.

“The current grant scheme is already in place so increasing it may be the easier option to implement. “Either scheme may need to be more heavily incentivized over the next few years until such time as the list prices of electric cars fall of their own accord, as a result of manufacturing costs dropping.

“A healthy market for new electric cars in the UK will also have another major benefit – it will mean more EVs make their way onto the second-hand market, improving the affordability of zero-emission models for everyone.”