Boris Johnson's failed £1bn EV charger fund killed off by Labour
The £950 million Rapid Charging Fund was unveiled by the former prime minister in 2021 to support the plan to install more than 6,000 super-fast charge points across England's motorways by 2035.
The scheme was designed to provide a springboard for the UK to 'lead the western world in the provision of rapid and ultra-rapid public chargers'. Government sources confirmed this weekend that the fund had finally been scrapped in favour of a £400 million initiative designed to avoid the pitfalls of Johnson's scheme, which was shunned by motorway services operators.
It comes as:
⬤ the government confirmed that company car tax breaks for electric vehicles (EVs) will be extended until 2030;⬤ polling by Ipsos Mori showed that worries about a lack of charging infrastructure are the main barrier to drivers switching from petrol or diesel cars to an EV; and ⬤ experts say UK EV public charging costs are the highest in Europe, with drivers paying up to £670 a year more compared with petrol or diesel.
Johnson's Rapid Charging Fund formed part of his ten-point plan for a green revolution. Funding was designed to provide 'support on rapid charge points on motorways and major roads to dash any anxiety around long journeys'.
The initiative is understood to have failed to garner interest from motorway service operators such as Moto, Welcome Break and Roadchef as pilot schemes proved commercially unattractive. Among the complaints about the scheme were being bogged down in bureaucracy and being asked to commit to long-term power agreements that could lock in high costs years down the line.
This weekend's confirmation of the decision to scrap Johnson's fund follows reports this year that ministers were looking into a revamp.
The £400 million scheme for the deployment of charging infrastructure, announced during the Comprehensive Spending Review this month, is part of a broader package to support the uptake of zero-emission vehicles.
Ministers this weekend confirmed that company car tax breaks for EVs would remain in force until the end of the decade, although discounted tax rates would rise to 9 per cent by 2030 from 3 per cent currently.
The Department for Transport said: 'We're investing over £4 billion to support both industry and consumers in making the switch to electric vehicles, including by continuing to offer lower tax rates for EVs than those for traditional combustion engines.'
A perceived lack of charging points remains a major barrier to switch to an EV, however. New polling by Ipsos Mori found that while 53 per cent of car owners said that they plan to replace their car by 2028, only a quarter expect that this replacement will be an EV.
Concern about range is 'significant', the polling found. 'But underneath this concern our data suggests a level of nervousness and sense of a lack of information about EV charging, especially in public locations. It may be more accurate to talk about 'charge anxiety' rather than 'range anxiety',' Ipsos Mori said, in a report prepared for the Motability Scheme.
For those with disabilities, the concern is more stark, with 69 per cent of respondents from within the Motability Scheme saying that they were worried about the distance an EV could travel on a single charge.
Sales of battery electric vehicles grew 25.8 per cent in May and represent more than one in five (21.8 per cent of all new car sales), according to industry figures.
Separate analysis concludes that the UK has become a global leader outside China in the uptake of EVs. But it warns that the cost of running zero-emission vehicles could outstrip that of a petrol or diesel powered alternative.
UK EV public charging costs are the highest in Europe, according to a report by BNEF, a researcher owned by Bloomberg. This means that drivers will pay between £300 to £670 more a year depending on charger speed compared with petrol, the report's authors found.
Drivers with off-street parking or those able to charge at home fare better, however. Despite UK residential electricity being among the most expensive in Europe, EV drivers would save an average of about £290 a year if vehicles were charged at home, the report found.
Analysis by the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit in 2023, cited by the government this year, found that new petrol cars could cost approximately £700 a year more to run than electric models.
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