UK House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee Report on EV Strategy
15 February 2024
House of Lords Report on the EV sector – ‘EV strategy: rapid recharge needed’
The House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee has just released its report into the EV sector, and it provides a very good overview of the EV sector as a whole and highlights many of the challenges faced by EV infrastructure manufacturers, service providers and EV OEMs. This report will be another piece of supporting information in EVIG engagement with MPs.
A successful transition to electric vehicles (EVs) is essential if the Government is to meet its legally binding net zero target by 2050.
The Government has legislated to end the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2035 and there has been progress towards the target—the Government’s Zero Emission Vehicles mandate, requiring manufacturers to sell an increasing proportion of EVs each year, was introduced in December 2023. There has also been some progress in the rollout of the UK’s charging infrastructure and the Government has recently published strategies to enhance innovation in battery technologies and strengthen the UK’s car manufacturing industry.
However, progress is not happening fast enough, and major barriers remain. EVs are more expensive than their petrol and diesel counterparts, and there is an insufficient affordable EVs on the market.
Up to 40 per cent of households do not have off-street parking at home and thus are entirely reliant on public charging. The availability of public chargepoints across the UK is highly variable, and the Government has missed its targets for motorway chargepoints.
Major funding programmes for public chargepoints have faced serious delays.
Consumer confidence is critical to secure a successful transition. So, as well as material progress on the above obstacles, the Government must do more to convey a positive vision of the EV transition.
The Minister told the committee that the Government was concerned about misinformation and the Director of Transport Decarbonisation at the Department for Transport stated that there had been a “concerted campaign of misinformation” about EVs in recent months. The Government’s concern at the scale of misinformation, however, has not been matched by commensurate urgency in tackling it. A joint consumer information campaign between Government and industry that was praised by several witnesses was ended in 2021.
The Government should take a more proactive and leading role in communicating a positive vision of the EV transition to consumers, and promoting comprehensive, clear, authoritative, accurate and balanced information.
The Government must now seize the opportunity it has given itself. It must publish a roadmap through 2035 setting out the steps it will take to achieve the target, focusing on key areas:
- Tackle the disparity in upfront costs between electric and petrol and diesel cars. There is an insufficient range of affordable EVs, and EVs are more expensive than petrol and diesel equivalents.
- The Government must tackle delays in the rollout of funding schemes for public chargepoint infrastructure and build on the support available to local authorities.
- Ensure charging is reasonably priced, convenient, and reliable.
- Accelerate grid decarbonisation.
- Begin an urgent review of road taxation. The shift from petrol and diesel to EVs—currently exempt from fuel duty, congestion charging and vehicle excise duty—necessitates a radical rethink of road taxation.
There are 123 recommendations and conclusions listed in the report, members are urged to read the full report, available for download at the top of this page.
