Electric Vehicles
(Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021
Moved by
That the draft Regulations laid before the House on 28 October be
approved. Considered in Grand Committee on 30 November.
Relevant document: 18th Report from the Secondary Legislation
Scrutiny Committee.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Transport () (Con)
My Lords, I beg to move the second Motion standing in my name on
the Order Paper.
Amendment to the Motion
Moved by
At end insert, “but that this House regrets that the draft
Regulations fail to include a requirement for all charging points
to be fully interoperable”.
(Lab)
My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to speak briefly to
my amendment to the Motion. I apologise that it was not put down
when the regulations were debated in Grand Committee, so I will
be as brief as I can. First, I welcome these regulations. My view
is that they do not go far enough, but they are a very good
start.
The key in my amendment to the Motion is that there needs to be
more said and done to promote interoperability. Paragraph 7.6 of
the Explanatory Memorandum states:
“This instrument makes clear that a charge point should not
introduce a new barrier to switching by being designed to lose
its smart functionality when its owner changes supplier.”
That is very good, but it does not go far enough. In the debate
in Grand Committee, the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, and my
noble friend made some excellent points
about interoperability and the Minister gave some good answers,
but my concern is that electric vehicle use will not take off
until there is full interoperability of the system, which I shall
come to, and full confidence among users that they will be able
to use the electric power supply rather like people use petrol
stations now—in other words, they can guarantee that when they go
to a supply, they will be able to connect up and get some
power.
I have a very small, but I think critical, example of my little
village in Cornwall where the parish council has put in two
charging points in the car park. This is very important when the
nearest petrol station is about 15 miles away. A friend who has
an electric car tried to use them but they have been out of order
all summer, when everybody goes there. He wrote to the supplier
to say that its machines did not work, and the answer was that
there was a technical fault. He then discovered from the car park
owner—the parish council—that the reason they did not work was
that the supplier had not paid the parish council the very small
amount of money that it was due to allow the charging points to
be placed there. This could be all over the country.
It is a minor detail, but we need to have some comprehensive
regulations which cover charging at home, and what is in these
excellent regulations, rapid charging, minimum waiting times,
sockets on lampposts, facilities for long and short journeys,
from wherever you pick them up. The most important thing of all
is that one plug and one socket fits all, not like mobile phones
at the moment. Will the Minister be able to give some idea about
when there will be a comprehensive plan to make electric power
for vehicles fully interoperable and fully comprehensive? I am
sure she will agree that when that happens it will all take off.
I look forward to her comments.
(Con)
My noble friend will be aware that there are very few charging
points across the north of England. There is also still a
catastrophic power outage in parts of the north-east of England.
Will she reassure the House this afternoon that there are
absolutely no plans in the foreseeable future that any public
service vehicles, such as buses, ambulances or fire engines, will
switch to electric engines any time soon in the north-east of
England?
(LD)
I add to the excellent comments already made that there is an
overriding concern among EV owners about whether you are safely
going to get to the end of your long journey. You have none of
those concerns if you are in a petrol or diesel car; you know
that you will be able to refill your car. If you are in an EV,
not only do you have the uncertainty as to whether the charge
point will fit or will work, you also have to stand out in the
rain in the corner of a motorway services feeling insecure.
15:45:00
Until the Government take the leadership that we need on this
issue, we will not solve these problems. The legislation before
us today is fine as far as it goes, but it is about squeezing a
little bit more out of the grid, which is already overstretched.
We need greater leadership from the Government.
(CB)
My Lords—My Lords, I agree with previous speakers. I took a short
journey last week in my electric car to a hotel where there were
six charging points. Three of them were for Tesla only—that is
not me—and of the other three, one was occupied, one did not work
and the other I could not make work. I will not detain your
Lordships’ too long by saying that I nearly had a heart attack
trying to get home worrying what was going to happen.
I should also add that in a new multi-storey car park in Botley,
west Oxford, where I live, there are 14 charging points. Every
single one is out of order—every single one. The building is
operated by Savills, but I have had no response from it other
than saying that it does not have a legal obligation to turn on
these points. Not only that, but if you were able to make them
work, you would have to be a member of a particular company that
supplies the electricity and would need to have working wi-fi.
This will not do. We do not want competition—we want uniformity
and contactless payment.
(Lab)
We had a discussion on interoperability when we debated these
regulations last Tuesday in Grand Committee. There were questions
asked; the Government were asked to say in their response whether
the wording in the Explanatory Memorandum—to which my noble
friend has referred—in paragraph 7.6
constitutes in reality a requirement for all charging points to
be interoperable. I expressed the personal view that it did not,
but I asked for clarification on that point.
Later in the Explanatory Memorandum, the Government say that they
have
“chosen not to mandate device-level requirements”
relating to demand-side response interoperability
“at this time … because the smart charging market remains
nascent, and because delivering interoperability would require
broader powers than those set out in”
the Automated and Electric Vehicle Act 2018. That comment was
despite the fact that the Explanatory Memorandum states:
“The ability of consumers to freely switch energy supplier is a
fundamental principle in the energy market”,
which makes it rather surprising that we seem to have this delay
over interoperability.
The Government, in the Explanatory Memorandum, also went to say
that they
“intend instead to consider how best to deliver interoperability
as part of a second phase of legislation, by looking at placing
wider requirements on the entities … which could deliver DSR
through charge points. Government aims to consult on this second
phase of policy measures in 2022.”
I suggested that that was a somewhat vague timescale that
contained no target date for actually legislating. I asked the
Government whether they could be more specific in their response.
The noble Baroness the Minister was good enough to say—which I
appreciated—that she could not give specific answers to these
questions when we were debating this last Tuesday and that she
would write to answer all questions that had been asked.
Irrespective of what the Minister intends to say in response now,
I hope that we shall still be getting that written reply to
questions that were not responded to last Tuesday.
(Con)
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have taken part in this
short debate, including the noble Lord, , for the opportunity to
outline the Government’s position on interoperability. I reassure
the noble Lord, , that the letter is coming his
way; it will pick up all the points raised in in that debate and
any raised from today’s debate—of course, today, I am focusing on
interoperability, but I note comments made by other noble Lords
on wider EV infrastructure. They will be aware that the EV
infrastructure strategy will be published soon, which will set
out the vision and action plan for charging infrastructure
rollout, but I am aware that some more specific comments have
been made.
There are many different types and forms of EV charge point
interoperability, relating to both public and private charge
points. Some forms of interoperability are already delivered by
the market. For example, most private charge points sold in Great
Britain are compatible with all EVs. Work is also under way
within government to consider whether further action on
interoperability is needed to deliver the best outcomes for
consumers.
I turn first to private charge points. These regulations will
embed further interoperability by mandating electricity supplier
interoperability in law for the first time. This new requirement
will ensure that consumers will retain the smart functionality of
their charge point. The Government also considered including
requirements for charge point operator interoperability in the
regulations. This would have required all charge points to be
compatible with any operator, but the Government’s view is that
this type of interoperability would not be appropriate for such a
nascent market. It would not materially affect the consumer
experience and would be an unnecessary burden on the industry.
Therefore, we are not bringing forward such requirements.
Further work is under way to consider other types of
interoperability in the smart energy system, including for
private EV charge points. This could include requirements to
allow consumers to switch the provider of specific smart charging
services. That is another type of interoperability, very similar
to that enjoyed, for example, by smartphone users, who can change
their mobile network provider without needing to purchase a new
device. Crucially, consumers would be able to seek out new deals
or better services, but that would not detriment the industry’s
ability to innovate and develop new products and services. These
are the sorts of things that the Secretary of State for Business
aims to consult on in 2022. I have no more specific date today,
but, as I said, I will write to the noble Lord, .
Turning to public charge points, in 2017 we mandated that rapid
charge points must have CCS connectors to ensure interoperable
charging. There are now only two EV models available to buy in
the UK with CHAdeMO sockets, and one of those providers has
indicated that future models will provide CCS—96% of rapid
chargers come with both connectors.
In addition, in February 2021 we consulted on proposals to ensure
that UK charging networks offer seamless consumer experience, and
considered a range of different types of interoperability. This
includes proposals on payment interoperability, which would
mandate a minimum payment method, such as contactless, and
explores whether we should intervene to ensure interoperable
payment apps. The government response to that consultation on
public charge points will be published shortly, with regulations
being laid next year.
EV charge point interoperability is a critical policy area for
this Government. As I hope to have portrayed today, there is not
just one type of interoperability; there are several, some of
which the Government are very willing to get involved in; others
we will leave to the market. We are committed in our smart
charging government response to explore those forms of
interoperability, and then we will lay regulations.
(Lab)
I am very grateful to the Minister for that answer and for the
comments of other noble Lords: the noble Baronesses, Lady Deech
and Lady Randerson, and my noble friend . Of course, I am aware that
there are many different types of interoperability, but I recall,
about 20 years ago, when I—probably like other noble Lords—was
travelling around Europe on business, you had to have a bag of
about 20 different plugs to plug in your phone, charge it and
make the phone work. This will not work unless there is some
reaction and force from consumers to have something that is
simple and easy-to-use. I wish it well, and I look forward to
what the Minister will send to us in the next few months but, on
that basis, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment to the Motion withdrawn.
Motion agreed.
