Vicky Edmonds
CEO, EVA England
A smart, clean city will mean that every electric driver can top up their battery when they need to — at an accessible chargepoint and an affordable price.
Imagine a city where the vast majority of the journeys we make can be easily undertaken by bus, walking or cycling and where the remaining journeys we need to make by car or van are all electric.
Vision of an ‘electric city’
We can charge our vehicles in a variety of ways: at home, either on a driveway or on the street; at our workplace; or in public spaces. Some streets and car parks will be lined with chargepoints that are easily accessible, with dynamic pricing systems that mean we can make use of cheaper prices at off-peak times. Others will have innovative cross-pavement solutions. New technologies, such as integrated smart digital platforms, will allow us to link our car’s charging system to our home supply.
Around half of electric drivers
rely on the public charging network.
Can we make that vision a reality?
The UK has made huge strides in creating a growing and competitive market for electric vehicles and their charging infrastructure. Government regulation, incentives and funding have helped to put the UK on a course to be all-electric by 2050. It should reduce the ticket price of many of the vehicles, increase the rate at which chargepoints are installed and make sure those chargepoints work for people.
However, as the market grows, the challenges are shifting. According to our EVA England 2024 summer survey, around half of electric drivers rely on the public charging network. We need a collective focus across the sector on understanding where and when drivers want to charge, the price they can afford to pay and the needs of users with disabilities.
Making chargepoints accessible
There has been important work to create a standard that ensures chargepoints are accessible to all users — let’s see that standard roll out. We must see investment targeted towards technologies that bring the cost of public charging closer to that of home charging so that it is affordable to all. We must ensure that transport and energy planning remove barriers to installing the variety of charging technologies we need, in the right places. We are not far off from that vision of a smart clean city. Let’s make it happen.
