Electric vehicles: homeside and workside

United KingdomScotland

Our article on the Government’s strategy on cleaner road transport, Road to Zero Strategy (“Strategy”), set out an overview of the key intention of the Strategy and other recent developments. Below we set out a little more detail how the Strategy approaches infrastructure for charging electric vehicles at home and at work. Ease of electricity charging at these two places is considered a key consideration in enabling successful market penetration of cleaner road vehicles. Aside from the auto sector these intentions will be of relevance to the construction, infrastructure, power and real estate sectors.

Homeside

The Government will be looking to support the development of charging infrastructure via the following:

  • Consideration is to be given to how best to ensure that all types of residents, including leaseholders and occupiers, with private off-street car parking, are able to access a charge point for an electric vehicle. Residents are not to be disadvantaged merely on the basis of having communal parking facilities or not owning their home. In England and Wales this will be reviewed as part of work being conducted by the Law Commission into commonhold tenure.
  • An aim that new (appropriately located) street lighting columns in residential areas with current on-street parking to include charge points.
  • An intention that all new homes, where appropriate, should have an available charge point. There is to be a consultation to introduce a requirement in this regard in England.
  • Continuation of the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS) to provide grant support for the installation of dedicated domestic charge points (both on and off streets). This is to be maintained at £500 (capped at 75% of costs) until March 2019 or until 30,000 installations (in 2018/19), whichever is the sooner. Thereafter the grant level is to be reviewed at least annually with a view to removing the grant as uptake increases and the market becomes self-sustaining.
  • £4.5 million grant funding available to 2020 to local authorities for the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme.
  • The launch of a process for an R&D programme of up to £40 million to develop and trial wireless charging and public on-street charging solutions that can be deployed across entire residential streets.

Workside

In terms of workside charging infrastructure, the Government will:

  • Increase the financial levels of the Workplace Charging Scheme so as to provide up to £500 off the installation costs of charging sockets at workplaces for consumers and fleets.
  • Legislate (in the Finance Bill 2018/19) so that no benefit in kind liability arises for employees who charge their own electric or plug in electric vehicle at work (a policy to this effect is already in place).
  • Consult on amending regulations to require relevant charging in new non-residential buildings.

Comment

The above appear to be a relatively gentle set of policies and incentives. If we take a comparative look across at the legal and policy measures designed to increase the energy efficiency of the building stock, there appear to be some notable measures that are not set out in the Strategy. For instance, the intended legal requirement to install charging infrastructure at homeside and workside locations, only applies to new build homes and offices etc. In terms of energy efficiency this was seen as far too limited. Measures are required to increase energy efficiency not only on new build, but also on major renovations. In terms of energy efficiency there are also positive requirements to renovate the public sector building stock (an argument being that this helps to stimulate change and stimulate the energy efficiency market), but no such intention is expressed to consider the same in terms of charging infrastructure in the public sector estate.

We shall have to see if the measures set out in the Strategy produce the desired breakthrough (in the desired timeframe), in terms of charging infrastructure at these two important locations.