The Welsh Government’s current strategy for getting more electric
vehicles on the road is ‘inadequate’ and beset by broken
promises, according to a Senedd Committee.
The Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee’s
latest report analyses the Welsh Government’s commitments in an
October 2021 ‘Action Plan’ and found multiple failures to follow
through on promises made less than 18 months ago.
Of the nine main commitments made in the document, the
cross-party Committee found that five of them had not been
delivered on time.
In several cases, the Welsh Government indicated it would
only now start to consider whether or how to
proceed with certain actions; months after the deadline for them
to be completed.
The Committee states that the lack of progress undermines the
credibility of the Action Plan and calls into question the Welsh
Government’s commitment - or ability - to follow through on their
promises.
Inaction Plan
In rural areas, the lack of electricity grid capacity is a
significant issue. This has led to long delays in connecting
charge points and an uneven distribution of chargers across
Wales.
The 2018 Action Plan commits the Welsh Government to establishing
a “Connections Group” to co-ordinate the development of this
infrastructure across Wales - yet the Group has never been
established.
The same issue was found in another of the Welsh Government’s
commitments. To determine the best locations for charging points
across the country, the Action Plan proposed setting up a group
to bring together "private, public, not-for-profit and community
organisations"; yet this has also never been created.
The Committee is calling for both groups to be formed in the next
few weeks as a matter of urgency.
Charging provision
The report describes how the 2,400 chargers in Wales (out of
37,000 across the UK) is the lowest number of public charging
devices and rapid/ultra-rapid devices per 100k population in
Great Britain.
The Committee heard from the Electric Vehicle Association Cymru
(EVA Cymru) that a lack of rapid charging points on key routes
across Wales represents the most significant barrier to the
uptake of electric vehicles.
Despite a large growth in the number of chargers over the last
few years, in Wales there is currently 1 rapid charger per 15,000
people compared to 1 per 11,000 people at UK level.
Charging at home and the office
Despite the Welsh Government promising to review building
regulations in 2022 to improve the situation, the Committee found
that this had also not been delivered.
EVA Cymru told the Committee that regulations in Wales currently
lag behind both Scotland and England in terms of requiring
charging points in both domestic and commercial properties:
"In Scotland, a standard (7kW) charge point must be provided
for each residential building with at least one parking space and
a ratio of 1:10 for every non-residential building. England has
in place similar requirements and these regulations also extend
to substantial renovations."
The report calls on the Welsh Government to complete a review of
building regulations as soon as possible and that this review
should also consider how hotels and visitor attractions could be
encouraged to have charging points.
, Chair of the Climate
Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee,
said, “Moving to a greener Wales means more of us
switching from petrol or diesel vehicles to electric models. But
people will only want to do this if the charging infrastructure
in Wales is good enough, and that we’re confident that we could
charge our cars when we need to. Frustratingly, this is far from
the case today.
“There has been some progress over the last few years but nowhere
near where it needs to be. The Welsh Government’s Action Plan
isn’t even 18 months old yet and some of the targets have already
been missed. This is unacceptable – and embarrassing.
“When that plan was written, it described a Wales with the lowest
electric vehicle uptake and the lowest number of charge points in
Great Britain, and there’s nothing we’ve seen since then that
would have changed that depressing fact. On several issues, it
seems more apt to call it an “inaction plan”.
“The Welsh Government declared a climate emergency only a few
years ago yet their progress on this crucial issue is already
inadequate. The Welsh Government needs to step it up a gear and
follow the Committee’s recommendations if they’re serious about
reducing the nation’s carbon emissions and getting more of us
into electric vehicles.”
ENDS
Notes
The full report is available here: EV_report_embargo_e.pdf
