“Charging Point Companies are Working to expand their Networks – but too Slowly!” claims Lib Dem Councillor.

Nick, himself the driver of an battery powered electric vehicle (BEV) for 5 years, claims that the rate of expansion of the charging points is far too slow – and this is holding back the uptake of BEV cars in particular as well as the general longer term electrification of transport.

“To head off dangerous levels of global heating we need to do many things together”, Nick explains. “Not only must we use active travel such as walking or cycling but we need to use public transport far more – and in many countries people combine these. They walk or cycle to a bus stop, parking their bicycles in secure, sheltered bike racks and then continuing their journey by bus or train.”

“We need to do this because we must cut the use of private cars by 20% at least. And the same time, the cars that people continue to own and use, along with light vans and buses, must be 100% battery electric powered.”

Although most people with hybrids and BEVs have a charging point in their home, many other people are unable to do that, and for them, publicly accessible charging is essential. Workplace charging facilities are now being installed and this is most helpful, but for people on holiday or who have to roam far from home or workplace, rapid or ultra-rapid charging points are important.

“Meanwhile, Ionity, a joint-venture comprising Daimler, BMW, Ford and Volkswagen, is planning to install 240 High-Power Chargers operating at an almost unbelievable 350kW at 40 UK sites and 2,400 at 400 sites across Europe.”

“On a less technically ambitious level, Volkswagen have announced a rather more conventional mix of 2,400 fast 7kW and rapid 50kW chargers at 600 Tesco stores.”

Nick concluded, “There’s certainly no shortage of announcements! What is needed, if we are going to make a serious dent in CO emissions, are usable charging points right here and now. I hope the slow roll out is not due to the inadequate electricity distribution at the local level of the Distribution Network Operators (DNOs), though I fear that this is indeed the case – a consequence of the privatisation of the electricity supply industry by the Tories all those years ago.”