Recommendation 3

We are not convinced that government has sufficiently thought through how the charging infrastructure will expand at the pace required to meet the ambitious timetable to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles. The Department for Transport makes a series of assumptions about the types of journeys people make and how they charge their electric car: 99% of all journeys are under 100 miles, the vast majority of electric car charging takes place at home during the night, and people will use public charging infrastructure for the long journeys they take. It has not however made an estimate for how many charge-points the country will need to keep up with the increase in electric cars. The Department regards government’s role for developing the charging infrastructure as stimulating rapid private investment and unblocking market failures. Whilst it has committed to targeting six rapid charge- points at every motorway service station by 2023, and up to 10 to 12 at larger sites, it has not focused much attention on charging for people that do not have off-street parking. Recommendation: The Department for Transport should set out as part of its plan for increasing the use of electric cars, how it intends to address the remaining barriers to expanding the charging network, for example, the availability of chargers where drivers do not have off-street parking.