Asked by
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have
given to mitigating the impact of the increase in the cost of
living by helping those who are most dependent on their car as a
mode of transport through supporting access to electric
vehicles.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Transport () (Con)
My Lords, we want people across the country to have the
opportunity to switch to electric vehicles. In many cases, EVs
are already cheaper to own and run than a petrol or diesel
equivalent. Even with recent trends in electricity prices, EVs
benefit from lower fuel costs than their petrol and diesel
equivalents.
(CB)
My Lords, I declare an interest as a board member of the
independent transport research group New AutoMotive. I thank the
noble Baroness for her Answer. Just this weekend we have seen
that fuel prices have again spiked by 3p a litre, and it is true
that the running costs of an electric vehicle can be up to 80%
cheaper per mile. It is therefore absolutely imperative that the
people who need to make the switch and who have no affordable
alternatives but to use a car must have access to electric
vehicles. Could the Minister comment on whether the Government
have looked into the possibility of making zero-interest loans
available for those who travel the most miles? What more can be
done in the forthcoming ZEV mandate regulations to help get the
right cars into the hands of those who need them the most?
(Con)
My Lords, the Government are doing an enormous amount to make
sure that the take-up of electric vehicles is as swift as
possible. We have introduced plug-in grants, we will be spending
£1.6 billion in total to support charging infrastructure, and
there are favourable tax elements relating to zero-emission
vehicles. At the moment, the Government do not have any plans to
introduce a specific zero-interest loan scheme for the purchase
of electric vehicles, although there are various loan schemes on
the market that people may wish to look at. On the zero-emission
vehicle mandate, we are currently conducting a technical
consultation on the design parameters for the mandate, which is
open until 10 June.
(Lab)
My Lords, the noble Baroness said that it is cheaper to run
electric vehicles, but that rather depends on the price that
people have to pay for buying the current. Would she agree that
those who are in most need of cheaper vehicles will probably be
paying the highest price for their electricity, depending on
where they get it from? In addition, when will she insist that
all the plugs and sockets for the different makes of cars are
interchangeable?
(Con)
The noble Lord was quite right to say that it depends on where
people get the electricity from. It is the case that, for many
people who are able to charge at home using off-peak electricity,
prices can be as low as 2p per mile for the running costs of an
electric vehicle. However, the Government are very cognisant of
the fact that we need to introduce charging infrastructure in
more places other than peoples’ driveways, which is why we
reformed the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme in April 2022 to
provide more help for those in flats and in buildings owned by
others.
(LD)
My Lords, further to that answer, can the Minister tell the House
how the Government justify the fact that households with
off-street parking are able to charge their electric cars at the
reduced VAT rate of 5% while households without off-street
parking, which are often on lower incomes, are required to pay
the standard 20% VAT rate? What does the Minister intend to do to
fix that?
(Con)
I will write to the noble Lord about those differences in VAT
rates, that being a matter for the Treasury and one on which I am
not briefed today. However, I would say that the Government have
announced a local EV infrastructure fund pilot of £10 million,
which will look at technically and commercially innovative
proposals coming from local authorities to help those people who
do not have driveways to be able to charge their cars near their
home.
(Con)
My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Worthington, is quite right
that more access to electric cars would be very nice. However, in
the immediate situation, for those who cannot afford to buy an
electric car, or a new car at all, does my noble friend agree
that the quickest and cheapest way to get down the cost of oil,
gas and transport—with a knock-on for food and inflation as
well—is for much more oil and gas to be pumped into global
markets quickly? Did she notice that, last Thursday, the meeting
of OPEC sounded much more co-operative about doing just that and
having a major impact on prices? Does she welcome that?
(Con)
Energy security is a priority for Her Majesty’s Government. Great
Britain already has highly diverse and flexible sources of gas
supply and a diverse electricity mix.
(GP)
My Lords, car clubs often use electric vehicles and offer the
benefits of clearing our roads, fewer miles and cleaner air. Have
the Government done anything to benefit car clubs since 2014,
when the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, announced £500,000 for
them?
(Con)
The Government are hugely supportive of car clubs. To be honest,
they benefit from various government measures. For example,
people using car clubs can use the chargers, the rollout of which
the Government are supporting across the country. We do not have
any specific proposals for financial support for car clubs, but
we welcome them and think they have a core part to play in
future.
Lord McLoughlin (Con)
My Lords, I declare my interest as chairman of Transport for the
North. Will my noble friend outline what the Government are doing
to work in partnership with the private sector to ensure that we
have much more rollout of availability of superchargers
throughout the country, to give confidence to people who already
own or are thinking of purchasing an electric vehicle?
(Con)
My noble friend is absolutely right: it is not up to the
Government alone; it must be up to support from both the
Government and the private sector. That is why the Government are
investing, alongside the private sector, in a £400 million fund
for charging points. To date, between the Government and
industry, we have supported more than 30,000 publicly available
devices.
(LD)
My Lords, a recent Which? report pinpointed the problem of the
lack of interoperability between multiple payment systems for EV
charge points. It is nothing short of sharp practice that EV
owners have money tied up in what are effectively useless apps
and cards—I say “useless” because so many charge points are out
of commission. The Government have the power to insist on the use
of ordinary credit and debit cards at EV charge points, so that
paying is easy. Why have they done nothing about that so far?
(Con)
The Government accept that reliability is absolutely key when it
comes to EV charging. We will look at minimum reliability
standards for charge points and hold poor-performing operators to
account; we are looking at mandating a 99% reliability metric
across the rapid charging network. We will regulate for minimum
payment methods, such as contactless, and payment roaming at new
charge points over 7.1 kilowatts. We will also look at
retrofitting existing charge points over 50 kilowatts.
The Lord
My Lords, can the Minister indicate whether the Government will
pay particular attention to promoting access to electric vehicles
in rural areas, which are already disadvantaged by a lack of
adequate public transport?
(Con)
The Government feel that the take-up of electric vehicles should
be countrywide. The key thing about rural areas is making sure
that they have appropriate access to charge points. We are aware
that rural areas are more poorly served than their urban
equivalents, which is why we are looking carefully at the amount
of support we can give to local authorities. For example, so far,
157 local authorities have applied to the On-Street Residential
Chargepoint Scheme—I wish it were more—and we expect 11,000
charge points to be rolled out with this scheme. I really do
think that there is an opportunity for rural local authorities to
grasp the financial support that the Government have made
available.
(Con)
My Lords, quite apart from the cost of electricity, does my noble
friend accept that many people in this country are reliant on
cars with a price point of roughly £15,000? That would not buy
you an electric battery, let alone an electric car. Are the
Government not in danger of pricing large numbers of people out
of car ownership altogether?
(Con)
My noble friend is right that many people do not buy any vehicle.
Indeed, fleet operator businesses represent around half of the
new vehicles purchased in this country. It is important that
those vehicles then come into the secondary used car market once
they have ended their useful life within businesses. That happens
after around three years, so we expect a number of zero-emission
vehicles to come into the used car market in due course. We
recognise that there are probably not enough of them there now,
but that is just a function of time. We can work with fleet
operator businesses and get them to buy new zero-emission
vehicles, which will then come into the used car market.
(Lab)
My Lords, does the Minister accept that, because of the paucity
of public transport outside London, many workers—including quite
low-paid ones—are absolutely dependent on a motor car? Does she
also accept that the private sector, which is so praised in the
department’s latest guidance, does not have a good record of
making sure that facilities such as this are provided at
reasonable cost? Is it an objective of the Government to make
sure that people who have cars for their work today will be able
to afford and run them in future?
(Con)
The noble Lord raises a number of issues. It is worth pointing
out that the private sector has been incredibly successful in the
rollout of energy sources in the past. I do not believe that
previous Governments would mandate petrol stations in certain
places, nor spend billions of pounds supporting their
introduction, but we are very clear that we will support the
introduction of charging points. On public transport, I beg to
differ: this Government are investing billions of pounds of both
capital and revenue to support public transport in our great
cities and our rural areas.
