Electric vehicles: Bill will increase availability of chargepoints

12.00 | 19 October 2017 | | 3 comments

Motorway services and large petrol retailers will be required to install chargepoints for electric vehicles, the Government has announced.

The plans are part of the Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill which received its first reading in the House of Commons on 18 October.

The Bill sets out to increase the access and availability of chargepoints, while also giving the Government powers to make it compulsory for chargepoints to be installed across the country.

The Government says the Bill will enable drivers of electric vehicles to easily locate a chargepoint, using information from sat navs or mobile apps.

All chargepoints will be ‘smart’, meaning they can interact with the grid to manage demand for electricity across the country.

The Bill will also pave the way for drivers of automated vehicles to be insured on UK roads.

The Government says automated vehicles have the potential to ‘greatly reduce road traffic accidents’, and points to research which estimates that the market will be worth £50bn to the UK economy by 2035.

John Hayes, transport minister, said: “We want the UK to be a leading hub for modern transport technology, which is why we are introducing the Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill in Parliament and investing more than £1.2bn in the industry.

“This Bill will aid the construction of greater infrastructure to support the growing demand for automated and electric vehicles as we embrace this technology and move into the future.”

Jesse Norman, roads minister, added: “Automated and electric vehicles will help improve air quality, cut congestion, boost safety and create thousands of skilled jobs in the UK.

“We have already supported the purchase of 115,000 ultra-low emission cars and there are already more than 11,500 publicly available chargepoints, but the demand continues to grow as more people purchase electric vehicles to cut fuel costs and boost the environment.”

Jesse Norman will use his presentation at the Smarter Travel Conference in Milton Keynes today (19 Oct) to announce further funding for local authorities to install chargepoints in residential areas where cars are parked on the street.


Categories: Vehicles & technology, Automated vehicles.

 

 

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    David, Who has the most to lose when petrol/diesel powered cars are no more? Who has a network of land/facilities around the world designed for cars to access to re-fuel? Who has the ability to make money by selling “over-priced” food/drinks/replacement light bulbs etc whilst people wait to re-fuel?

    Same answer to all questions – them that sell us petrol/diesel now! Not really turkeys voting for Christmas but self preservation? Unless they sell the land of for re-development?


    Nick, Lancashire
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    I cannot help wondering if “driver of an automated vehicle” is an oxymoron? It would be interesting to find out if any research has been carried out re drivers who have access to various vehicles and their reaction times when the control layouts differ i.e. wipers and indicators on opposite stalks. If the autonomous vehicles also have differing control layouts will the reaction time, already expected to be higher due to lack of attention to the driving task, increase even more?


    Peter City of Westminster
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    I would never have guessed that petrol retailers would be made responsible by the Govt. for providing charging points. That sounds to me like turkeys not only voting for Xmas, but being forced to do it. You couldn’t make it up.


    David, Suffolk
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