UK Electric Vehicle Charging Points ‘Not Keeping Pace’ With 2030 Target, UK MPs Told

Figures 'quite atrocious' as Northern Ireland counts 600 EVs per rapid charger

An electric taxi is seen being charged at a BP Pulse electric vehicle charging point in London on July 16, 2021. Peter Nicholls/Reuters

MPs from all parts of Britain have called on the government to “step up” and increase the number of rapid electric charging points if they are to meet the demand expected over the next seven years.

In 2020, Boris Johnson announced plans to phase out the sale of all new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, and pledged £1.3 billion ($1.45 billion) toward installing electric vehicle charging points in homes, streets, and on motorway service areas.

But a special debate at Westminster Hall on Wednesday—hosted by Conservative MP for Winchester, Steve Brine—heard widespread criticism of the British government’s record of delivering charging points.

Brine said: “The ambition is great. But I’m worried about the practicalities of the roadmap of how we get there.” He said not everybody could afford a Tesla—or had a driveway on which they could park it to charge it overnight off solar panels on their roof.

Brine said that “supply and cost are major barriers right now” to people switching over to electric vehicles, and he said he felt the current target—that all new vehicles would emit zero emissions by 2035 (pdf)—“may be beyond us.”

Kerry McCarthy, Labour’s shadow minister for climate change, said a £950 million rapid charging fund which had been set up in 2020 had yet to issue any funding to applicants. She said the government had set a target in March 2022 of making 300,000 public charging points available by 2030.

McCarthy said: “That means we need about 30,000 to be installed per year. Last year only 8,800 were installed and that’s clearly not good enough and they need to step up.”

DUP MP Highlights Poor Charging Infrastructure in Northern Ireland

Ian Paisley, MP for the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), said the charging infrastructure in Northern Ireland was considerably worse than in England, Scotland, and Wales.

He said that Northern Ireland only had 18 public charging points as of October 2022—several of which were antiquated, unreliable, and not compatible with some electric vehicles.

Paisley—son of former NI First Minister Ian Paisley senior—said Scotland had 66 electric vehicles per rapid charger, while England had 155 per device. However, the figure in Northern Ireland was 600 vehicles per rapid charger.

Paisley said there was very little “consumer confidence” in electric vehicles in the North, and added: “Northern Ireland’s electric infrastructure is antiquated. It was developed in the 1960s and it is not fit for purpose for what the government has planned for 2025, for 2030, for 2035, or 2040 going forward with electric vehicles.”

The SNP’s transport spokesman, Gavin Newlands, said the figures from Northern Ireland were “quite atrocious.”

He said the UK as a whole needed to up its game if it was to meet the challenge of the electric vehicle “revolution.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during the official opening of the new Tesla electric car manufacturing plant near Gruenheide, Germany, on March 22, 2022. Christian Marquardt - Pool/Getty Images

Newlands said: “We’re lagging miles behind Norway, where over 50 percent of new car sales are now fully electric with another quarter coming from hybrid. They are on course to meet their goal of phasing out all private petrol and diesel cars in the next two years, which is a phenomenal achievement in such a short period of time.”

“Imagine that: A small, energy-rich, independent Northern European country with control over its own finances and infrastructure, setting ambitious targets and taking the radical steps needed to meet those targets. It will never ever catch on,” he joked.

Transport minister Huw Merriman, however, insisted the government was on track to meet its targets.

‘Government is Committed to Decarbonising Transport’

Merriman said: “The government is committed to decarbonising transport, and to phasing out the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, becoming the first G7 country to do so.”

Merriman said industry data showed that in December 2022, 32.9 percent of new cars sold were fully electric.

He said: “This is the best ever month for new battery electric car registrations with more sales than in all of 2019 combined. The UK had the second-highest battery electric car sales in Europe in 2022. Germany being first, France being third.”

Merriman said: “We’re moving away from subsidising individuals buying electric vehicles, we’re moving more to a mandate now that will incentivise car manufacturers to produce the electric vehicles and if they don’t, then they will end up being penalised. That is our future philosophy.”

Last month Andy Mayer, chief operating officer and energy analyst at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), said Britishvolt was always a “highly risky project” and he said the government should walk away from it or risk a repeat of the DeLorean affair.

Lily Zhou contributed to this report.