Some interesting points here on charging points, plus the retreat from EV production by prestige makers like Porsche is something of a fork in the road perhaps? Here’s the word;
A new analysis shows that the government’s promise to deliver 300,000 EV chargepoints by 2030 will fall short by nearly 130,000 based on last year’s growth rate, raising concerns over whether the UK’s charging failures are one of the factors driving manufacturers away from the market.
Honda has scrapped three forthcoming electric models, absorbing a £12 billion loss and its first annual deficit in nearly seven decades.
Honda is far from alone. Mercedes, Rolls-Royce, Volkswagen, Ford, Volvo, Nissan, Toyota, Hyundai and Maserati have all trimmed or abandoned their EV ambitions over the past year.
The problem was never the product itself, but closing the gap between promise and practicality has proved far harder than the industry was willing to admit. Founder and GAP insurance expert at ALA Insurance, Simon England, has shared his perspective on the growing retreat from EVs across the industry.
He commented, “The industry looked at early adoption figures and assumed the tipping point was closer than it actually was. The truth is, until charging infrastructure feels as reliable as a petrol station and purchase price is within reach of ordinary buyers, most drivers will stick with what they know.”
“Cars like the Renault 5 have shown that when the product is right and the price is honest, people will buy,” he explained. “What is harder to stomach is the government that mandated the transition, then scrapped the plug-in car grant, introduced road tax on EVs and still failed to deliver on their own charging infrastructure targets.”
In March 2022, the government committed £1.6 billion to delivering 300,000 public chargers by 2030. There are currently just 118,321 in place, and ALA’s analysis of EV chargepoint infrastructure data suggests that at last year’s rate of growth, the network would reach only around 171,000 by 2030, falling nearly 130,000 short of its target.
“You cannot look at those numbers and not wonder whether this is part of the reason so many manufacturers are stepping back from EVs,” says Simon.
He suggests that what is often missed in the debate is that the buyers who can make EVs work are already buying them. “Nobody is saying EVs have failed. What we are seeing from these manufacturers is really about the distance between where the industry said we would be and where we actually are.”
It is the second and third wave of adopters where the real problem lies. “The harder sell is to renters, people without off-street parking, drivers in rural areas who cannot guarantee a working charger at the other end. That is a fundamentally different challenge that the industry has not solved.”
The scale of the challenge becomes clearer when you look beyond the UK and Europe.
“China installed more public chargers last year than the UK has in total,” Simon notes. “It funded the infrastructure, secured the land and upgraded the grid at the same time. The UK has been trying to solve an infrastructure problem through planning policy and waiting for private investment to do most of the work.”
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