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Bigger vehicles will often require a DC-power charger, rather than an AC one. These can charge at up to 300kW and are found at fast-charging locations on motorways. But they can cost £30,000 upwards, so current grants won’t touch the sides of paying for them at lorry depots, whether they are shared with the public and other firms or not, unless a firm demands very- high charging tariffs.


Private-office estates, along with the likes of schools, universities and hospitals can play a big role too. A 22kW unit can charge a medium size electric vehicle in less than four hours. Installing several of them allows staff to go electric. Adding a card-payment terminal will create a great stream of income. Public chargers tend to cost between 55 and 79p per kilowatt hour3


. Private


ones are 10p/kWh or less. If a building or campus manager charges somewhere between the two they can create a very appealing service to the public.


There is the possibility that private chargers which are accessible to the public might be misused, such as payment systems being bypassed by certain bits of technology. But a strong, secure software solution should, in most cases, prevent this being a problem.


Another option could be sharing EV charge points with other companies or organisations. A survey last year4 found that 62% of fleets would consider allowing mutual access to other fleets to their depot infrastructure. Paua PINS (Private Infrastructure Network Solution) and Cenex are working on a project5


with Oxfordshire and Suffolk County Council to do just that.


Currently, a stumbling block to more public chargers is the planning laws. If a unit is more than a certain height it can be deemed too tall, for instance. This is something that legislators and planners need to address quickly – the greater good of sustainable transport probably outweighs any aesthetic concerns. Labour has said6


Similarly, the £450 million Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund is nowhere near sufficient to allow hundreds of councils to introduce the number of charging points needed.


There a very limited amount of public chargers in rural areas. Innovation and investment in the National Grid will be needed to change this. But more research


it will is likely to alter the height rule,


but it must be held to this by industry and the public sector. It’s also important, however, that some chargers have low enough controls to allow wheelchair users and other drivers with mobility issues to use them.


Of course, what is needed more than anything is increased government funding. The current Workplace Charging Scheme7 contributes up to 75% of the cost of installing up to 40 sockets. But that’s capped at £350 per socket. It can be used alongside an Infrastructure Grant8


, capped at £500 per car parking space.


But a 22kW costs well over £1,500 to install and, though it might well make its money back through public use, that’s a big initial outlay.


The potential end of new diesel and petrol cars is only six years away. The time for us all to act to create a viable public-charging network is not in the distant future. It is now.


and funding to develop solar-powered chargers will help make it much easier and cheaper for remote communities to operate EVs. Solar power is also likely to be the most practical, cost- efficient and sustainable way that the UK’s power networks will be able to cope with the big increase in capacity needed for a comprehensive public charging network.


Labour has said it will accelerate the roll out of the long- delayed £950 million Rapid Charging Fund. But it also has to widen the financial scope of this and other EV charging grants and investments, much, much further. Private companies and organisations need to find the money to seriously boost their EV-charging infrastructure, too, though. What was once a nice- to-have is becoming vital for staff and an important service for the wider public.


References: 1: https://www.zap-map.com/ev-stats/how-many-charging-points


2: https://www.statista.com/statistics/312331/number-of-petrol-stations-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/ 3: https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/electric-cars/charging/electric-car-public-charging-costs-rac-charge-watch/


4: https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/charge-point-demand-map-due-soon-fleets-happy-to-share-infrastructure 5: https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/dft-funded-project-to-make-ev-infrastructure-sharing-a-reality-for-fleets 6: https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/WR-797_23-Automotive-strategy-v8.pdf 7: https://www.find-government-grants.service.gov.uk/grants/workplace-charging-scheme-2


8: https://www.find-government-grants.service.gov.uk/grants/electric-vehicle-infrastructure-grant-for-staff-and-fleets-1 fmuk 23


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