Labour has said that it will continue – and may bring forward – the Tory Zero Emission Vehicle mandate. This dictates the rate at which the industry must sell zero emission (i.e. battery) vehicles. Large penalties apply if it doesn’t.

But yet again this simply places the responsibility entirely on the industy – and ignores Westminster’s responsibility to invest in the infrastructure required to support this mandate.

First let’s consider how the cost of running a Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) compare with traditional Petrol and Diesel vehicles. The biggest cost is fuel (or charging, for BEVs). Taking a “typical” Volkswagen ID.3 the comparison looks like this:

BEVs turn out to be more than a third more expensive than Diesel. And even less fuel-efficient Petrol are significantly cheaper. This is because there are relatively few charge points, they’re new and unregulated, and the private companies installing them are rushing to maximise profit whilst this situation continues.

For a fully-electric (not hybrid) vehicle fast charging is needed if you aren’t going to have to wait all day for a re-charge. This means 50kW or more power available from the charge point. The UK does OK-ish on low power public charge points (less than 50kW) but really sucks it comes to fast charging.

The UK has almost the worst availability of public fast charging points of any European country – when you compare the number of BEVs on the road with the number of public fast charging points. And currently virtually all home charging points are limited by their grid connection to a slow charging point (typically no more than 8kW).

In fact it’s lack of grid infrastructure that also limits the faster rollout of public fast charging points. And with a privatised grid, the Westminster government is not well placed to address that.

And it just gets worse. Looking across the UK the ability of charging stations vs fuel stations to service drivers is radically different.

Take the number of BEVs, the availability of different types of fast charger, and that typical ID.3 and you can work out how many re-charges per hour could be achiedve across the whole UK. Now compare that with Petrol or Diesel vehicles. The contrast is stark.

So what’s the impact on drivers?

A third more expensive to run. 2% of the refuelling capacity we’re used to with petrol/diesel. One of the worst fast charge infrastructures in Europe. What better time for Labour to enforce its ZEV Mandate on the industry.

Summary