Queen's Speech 2017: Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill

“Legislation will be introduced to ensure the United Kingdom remains a world leader in new industries, including electric cars”

The purpose of the Bill is to:

• Allow innovation to flourish and ensure the next wave of self-driving (automated) technology is invented, designed and operated safely in the UK.
• Ensure we retain our position as a global leader in the market for electric vehicles by improving our national charging and hydrogen refuelling infrastructure.

The main benefits of the Bill would be:

• To put the UK at the forefront of automated vehicle ownership and use and maintain our position as one of the best places to research and develop modern transport technologies.
• To ensure a world-class infrastructure which supports the rapid adoption and use of electric vehicles by consumers as more mass market models become available, helping improve air quality.
• This supports the ambitions set out in the manifesto for the UK to “lead the world in electric vehicle technology and use”, with “almost every car and van to be zero- emission by 2050” (p.24), and to continue preparing the UK for automated vehicles (p.81).

The main elements of the Bill are:

• Extending compulsory motor vehicle insurance to cover the use of automated vehicles, to ensure that compensation claims continue to be paid quickly, fairly, and easily, in line with longstanding insurance practice.
• Allowing the Government to require the installation of charge points for electric vehicles at motorway service areas and large fuel retailers, and to require a set of common technical and operational standards. This will ensure that charge points are convenient to access arid work seamlessly right across the UK.

Territorial extent and application

• The provisions for automated vehicles would apply to England, Wales and Scotland. These are reserved matters.

• The provisions relating to electric vehicle infrastructure would apply to the whole of the UK and are reserved matters, except for in Northern Ireland where we will seek a legislative consent motion.

Key facts

• Official research indicates that the market for automated vehicles in the UK will be worth £28 billion by 2035. The Government is investing over £200 million in research and testing infrastructure to ensure the UK remains one of the best places to develop this technology.
• Connected and Automated Vehicle technologies have the potential to greatly reduce the occurrence of road traffic collisions. In 2015 85.7% of reported collisions that caused personal injury accidents in Great Britain involved human error.
• There are now over 100,000 vehicles in the UK fleet that have benefited from the Government Plug-in Car Grant for electric vehicles. More than 13,800 ultra low emission vehicles were registered in the first quarter of 2017, an increase of 17% from the same period in 2016.
• The Government has committed to spend £600 million during this Parliament to support the growing market for ultra-low emission vehicles, and a further £270 million funding was announced at Autumn Statement 2016. The UK is the largest market for electric vehicles in the EU and a global leader in electric vehicles’ development and manufacture - 1 in 5 electric cars sold in the EU in 2016 was made in the UK.