The UK will need a ¡°dense network¡± of charging facilities and additional investment if the government¡¯s newly announced plans to ban petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030 are to succeed.?
The UK government announced yesterday that it plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the country by 2030, a date which some say is an ¡°extremely aggressive target¡±.?
As part of the plan, the government said it would invest ?1.3 billion to accelerate the rollout of chargepoints for electric vehicles, ?582 million in grants to incentivise those buying zero or ultra-low emission vehicles and nearly ?500 million for the development and mass-scale production of electric vehicle batteries.
The chief executive of the BVRLA, the UK industry body for companies engaged in vehicle rental and fleet management, Gerry Keaney said, ¡°2030 is an extremely aggressive phase-out target, but one that will be embraced by many drivers and fleet operators.
¡°Setting these phase-out dates is just the start of the journey. Now the government needs to create the supportive environment that will enable fleets and motorists to step up to the challenge of decarbonising road transport. It won¡¯t be easy, and it won¡¯t be cheap.¡±
The trade body says that the government needs to implement tax incentives and grants to drive demand and warns that the necessary stimulus package could cost up to ?95 billion.
It added: ¡°The UK needs a comprehensive strategy on charging infrastructure. This must include an adequate supply of affordable, accessible and reliable public charge points and incentives to unlock private sector investment. EV infrastructure rollout should not be held back by arguments about who pays for upgrading the local electricity network and how this work is prioritised.¡±
The ?1.3 billion in funding for charging infrastructure is also likely to be inadequate, said the car industry. Recent research from the Society of Motor Manufaturers and Traders suggests that investment in the order of ?16.7 billion is actually required.?
Olivier Baldassari, group chief countries and operations officer at the Europcar Mobility Group, said, ¡°One of the key success factors for the programme is, of course, the ability to develop an ecosystem of charging solutions that are easy to use and accessible via a dense network.¡±
Europcar has recently signed a partnership for the charging of its electric vehicles with European smart charging provider NewMotion from January 2021.?
¡°NewMotion will provide Europcar Mobility Group with a complete ecosystem of solutions for the charging infrastructure: easy-to-use, smart charge points, as well as access to the Business Hub platform that allows to monitor, manage and control the entire charging infrastructure,¡± said Baldassari.
He added: ¡°In addition, with NewMotion, customers renting an electric vehicle in one of the Europcar Mobility Group¡¯s stations will receive a charge card, giving access to the largest public roaming network for on-the-go charging in Europe, with more than 170,000 charge points.¡±
The group also has a One Sustainable Fleet programme which aims to make more than a third of its fleet "green" (electric, plug-in hybrids and hybrids) by the end of 2023.?
Baldassari said: ¡°This programme includes several streams: close collaboration with car manufacturers to grow the share of 'green' vehicles within the group's fleet, customer education, training of group employees, launch of attractive offers to develop customer appetite for "green" vehicles, etc. So yesterday¡¯s announcement by the UK government is something that will be addressed in our on-going plans.¡±
Making the announcement, UK transport secretary Grant Shapps said: ¡°The UK is going further and faster than any other major economy to decarbonise transport, harnessing the power of clean, green technology to end the UK¡¯s contribution to climate change by 2050.¡±
Business secretary Alok Sharma, who is also president of the COP26 meeting due to take place in Glasgow in 2021, said: ¡°I hope other nations will follow suit as the UK makes another ambitious commitment to protect our planet and reach our all-important target to end our contribution to climate change by 2050.¡±
As well as the 2030 target, the government said that all new cars and vans must have zero emissions at the tailpipe by 2035. Between 2030 and 2035, new cars and vans can be sold if they have the capability to drive a significant distance with zero emissions (for example, plug-in hybrids or full hybrids).