A NEW House of Lords report has urged the government to take six key steps to avoid the UK “lagging in the slow lane” and missing out on the “significant benefits” of mass electric car ownership.
Baroness Parminter, the chair of the inquiry and leader of the House’s Lib Dem contingent, has called on ministers to instigate an “EV revolution” and tackle some of the “hurdles” faced by consumers in accessing the cars of the future.
GettyA House of Lords report has urged the government to instigate an ‘EV revolution’[/caption]
GettyPotential measures could include news taxes on petrol and diesel cars[/caption]
Published today, the paper from the Lords’ Environment and Climate Change Committee deep-dive into the issue warns that the UK must “put its foot on the accelerator” to transition to the new tech in order to meet legally binding net zero targets.
In order to do so the inquiry, which launched in August 2023, lays out six major priorities to improve EV uptake.
First of all, it recommended the implementation of a new “battery health standard” to breathe life into the second-hand electric car market.
This would have to be an “objective and reliable” measure of any second-hand batteries’ safety and performance in order to boost consumer confidence.
Likewise, Baroness Parminter cited the importance of tackling misinformation around EVs and urged politicians to avoid using them as a “green wedge issue” in the run-up to the next election.
This forms the basis of the second recommendation, that being an improvement in government communication surrounding EVs.
Baroness Parminter said: “If the government wants to get to net zero targets, it has to address petrol and diesel cars on our roads….it’s inconceivable that we reach them without tackling surface transport.
“We need to get people thinking about the issue now.
“Drivers need to see an announcement from government that they are prepared to overcome the well-known barriers to EV ownership.
“We need government to act, to communicate to people so it’s clear that buying an EV is the right thing to do in the short term.”
Thirdly, the committee urged the government to “turbocharge” the construction of new charging points by extending the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Grant for another three years.
This provides councils with a flow of taxpayer cash to improve access to charging in their areas.
The government previously committed to building 300,000 public chargers by 2030 but the figure currently sits at 55,000.
The committee believes that an extension of the grant, with a requirement for local authorities to produce an EV charging strategy attached to the funding, will help accelerate the pace of the transition.
The taxman cometh
Next, the report calls for a reform of the tax system around EVs to provide greater incentives for ownership.
At the moment, owners are set to be liable for road tax for the first time from April 2025, with many also falling foul of the Expensive Car Supplement on cars worth over £40,000 due to high list prices for EVs.
And while those with home chargers only pay 5% VAT on their usage, this rises to 20% when using the public charging network.
To counter this, the committee has proposed a “radical rethink” of the road tax system to encourage EV ownership and for the VAT to be equalized on public charging.
The latter would aim to make rapid and ultra-rapid chargers similar in price to average petrol and diesel prices, while slow chargers would be pegged “significantly below” that price.
The report suggests that the resulting loss to Treasury coffers could be balanced out by higher taxes on petrol and diesel models, using the example of the Netherlands, where a purchase tax is imposed on sales of traditional vehicles.
Baroness Parminter even pushed for this measure to be announced in the next Budget, with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt taking to the dispatch box on March 6.
The public needs the facts and an honest conversation about the total cost
Baroness Parminter
The fifth recommendation is an overhaul of planning regulations to help achieve a rapid increase in the number of chargers installed.
This would involve scrapping “out-of-date regulations” to speed up the rollout.
Bolder still is the proposal to offer consultations on giving renters and those in multi-occupancy buildings (e.g. blocks of flats) a “right to charge” and mandating that workplaces provide EV charging spaces in car parks.
The aim of the suggested measures would be to broaden access to charging and make EVs more practical for the majority of Brits.
Finally, the committee urged ministers to boost investment in both domestic EV manufacturing and “battery innovation”, as well as sites for recycling used batteries.
Upping funding for manufacturing would, they argue, help to make EVs more affordable and accessible for consumers, while enabling them to be produced, used and disposed of in the greenest way possible.
Baroness Parminter added: “The evidence we received shows the Government must do more – and quickly – to get people to adopt EVs.
“The public needs the facts and an honest conversation about the total cost and how it will be achieved.
“If [the Government] fails to heed our recommendations the UK won’t reap the significant benefits of better air quality and will lag in the slow lane for tackling climate change.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said: “After more than a decade of Government grants and tax incentives, the number of electric cars on our roads has significantly increased, with over a million now on UK roads.
“We are continuing to support the switch to electric with more than £2 billion, seeing a 45% increase in public charge points since January last year, putting us on track to install 300,000 public charge points by 2030.
“This week alone we have made charge points more accessible, with the first councils starting to receive part of the £381 million local electric vehicle infrastructure fund alongside new grants to install charge points in state schools and nurseries.”