Electric Vehicles: Infrastructure
Next 18 July 2019
(Waveney) (Con)
2. What steps he is taking to improve charging infrastructure for
electric vehicles. [912025]
(Northampton South) (Con)
18. What steps he is taking to improve charging infrastructure
for electric vehicles. [912042]
The Minister of State, Department for Transport ()
We are consulting on all new build homes in England being fitted
with charge points, and we want all new public rapid charge
points also to offer pay-as-you-go card payments from the spring
of 2020. Our grant schemes and the £400 million charging
infrastructure investment fund will see the installation of
thousands more public charge points, adding to the 20,000 already
installed.
I am grateful to the Minister of State for that reply. At sea,
Lowestoft is at the forefront of the transition to a low carbon
economy—the world’s largest offshore wind farm is being built
just off our coast—but the town also wants to be in the driving
seat on land. Will the Minister outline the initiatives that have
been put in place to ensure that electric vehicle charging
infrastructure can be rolled out quickly and early in Lowestoft,
and that the work will not just be focused in large cities?
With my hon. Friend as the Member for Lowestoft, I believe that
it is doing very well indeed on land, at sea and in the air. We
have to remember that the majority of electric vehicle drivers
charge their cars at home overnight or at the workplace. We want
people across the country, and especially in Lowestoft, to switch
to electric vehicles, and we want to leverage private sector
investment to provide a self-sustaining public network that is
affordable, reliable and accessible. As my hon. Friend knows, the
market is best placed to identify the right locations.
That was slightly more pointed than I expected. At the moment,
there is very little provision of electric car charging points in
my constituency of Northampton South; I have only been able to
find one in the whole constituency. What schemes does the
Minister have planned for urban constituencies such as mine, and
his?
I am very familiar with my hon. Friend’s constituency, which
neighbours my own. I am pleased to say that in February this year
Northampton Borough Council was awarded £45,000 under the
Government’s ultra low emission taxi infrastructure competition
to deliver two rapid charge points dedicated to electric taxis
and private hire vehicles. He is right to focus on this issue,
but we have a number of schemes that can be accessed by electric
vehicle drivers across the country, including in Northampton
South and Northampton North. The electric vehicles home charge
scheme is just one of them; the on-street residential scheme is
another. Local authorities are receiving significant funding to
install recharging points, including with these new technologies.
(Warrington South) (Lab)
23. E-bikes will offer enormous benefits for transport, health,
wellbeing, the environment and green business growth, especially
if Government funding is made available to support them. What
steps is the Minister taking to incentivise the use of e-bikes?
[912047]
I have recently been on an e-bike, and it was very good on hills.
E-bikes are of great assistance to people with health and
mobility issues. We want to encourage their use, and we are doing
just that. We are also investing vast sums in cycle lanes and
road infrastructure improvements, and we are focusing on safety.
There is more to be done, as always, but we have done an awful
lot more than Labour did in this area.
Mr Speaker
It is very interesting to learn of the personal experience of the
Minister, but all that I can say at this stage is that he is
challenging our vivid imaginations. I was going to call Mr
Stringer. Are you still interested, sir? Get in there.
(Blackley and Broughton)
(Lab)
Thank you, Mr Speaker. I was surprised to find that the charging
sockets are not standardised, either on cars or on charging
points. Would it not make sense to regulate to standardise them?
Of course, the market has been leading in this area, and we now
have 20,000 publicly accessible charging points, but I take the
hon. Gentleman’s point. We know from the charging of other
devices that we use every day that they do not all share the same
fixtures, but the fact of the matter is that we have an advanced
system in this country. We are growing it, and we will be
providing more funding in this area and looking to do more.
(North West Leicestershire)
(Con)
Contrary to popular myth, most particulates do not come from
modern diesel engines, but from wear between the vehicle’s tyres
and the road. Given that electric vehicles tend to be heavier
than their conventional counterparts owing to the weight of the
batteries, which increases tyre wear and road wear, does the
Minister have any concerns that the increased use of electric
vehicles may lead to increasing levels of particulates?
Mr Speaker
Interesting—the hon. Gentleman is giving the impression of
knowing something.
And what a good impression it is, Mr Speaker. The reality is that
we all know that electric vehicles are tremendously advantageous
to the economy and, frankly, to the environment, and there is
work to be done. My hon. Friend is quite right to mention
particulates, and we are looking at that issue, but electric
vehicles provide massive benefits to the environment.
(Kingston upon Hull East)
(Lab)
It is a sad day, because rumour has it that this is the Secretary
of State’s last outing at the Dispatch Box. He is the gift that
keeps on giving, but that is not funny because he has cost the
country billions. Earlier this month, the Society of Motor
Manufacturers and Traders announced that sales of low-emission
cars in the UK have fallen for the first time in two years. The
SMMT’s chief executive, Mike Hawes, described the decline as a
“grave concern” and blamed the Secretary of State’s confusing
policies and premature removal of purchase incentives. Will the
right hon. Gentleman finally apologise for his political blunders
that have cost the taxpayer £2.7 billion?
As usual, I am afraid that the hon. Gentleman is quite wrong. The
fact is that the Secretary of State has been leading the way in
this area, and the Department for Transport is also a world
leader. Some 200,000 ultra low emission battery, electric, and
plug-in hybrid vehicles are registered in the UK, and we are the
second-largest market for ultra low emission vehicles in the
European Union, so the hon. Gentleman is quite wrong.
Sir (New Forest West) (Con)
How will it work for houses that do not have a driveway or
reserved on-street parking, and what does the Minister mean by
the term “en suite”?
Did I say “en suite”? We are investing in technologies and
supporting innovations in on-street architecture—[Laughter.] We
might invest in “en suite” architecture as well, but that would
not be for my Department. Fixtures have been fitted to
streetlamps, for example, and there have been innovations in
contactless charging. Businesses around the country are working
on various mechanisms, and this Department is supporting many of
them with funding to help them to invent new technologies.
