The Labour Government elected today understands that British families can save on transport costs by switching to electric. This is because EVs have cheaper lifetime costs than petrol cars and by 2030 are expected to have lower upfront costs. Their manifesto sets out three pledges to support the transition to electric cars:
- Accelerate the rollout of public chargepoints;
- Restore the new petrol/diesel car phase-out date to 2030;
- Standardise the information supplied about EVs including on battery state of health.
Other pledges to motorists will help drivers of electric cars too, including fixing an additional one million potholes across England in each year of the next parliament and tackling the increasing cost of car insurance.
EV Experts support all three pledges and would also like to see VAT on public charging reduced to 5% in line with VAT on domestic electricity. We welcome the introduction of standards around consumer information for electric cars. We have only ever sold cars based on their realworld ranges and provide battery state of health certificates for our cars at both the Surrey and Hampshire stores. There is also expert advice on hand to make sure that customers buy the ideal EV for their lifestyle and get the best out of their purchase.
If you would like more information about this Government’s plans the Labour Party have set out their ambitions in their automotive sector plan.
Labour state that existing chargepoint funding of £950 million will be released as soon as possible to ensure there is reliable charging coverage across the UK. This will give consumers confidence by helping to address regional disparity in access to charging infrastructure as well as plugging gaps in the network.
Labour will remove barriers in the planning system to turbocharge decisions for net zero infrastructure. They also want to set quality standards for the information in charging apps so that drivers know with confidence that a chargepoint is available and operational before travelling to the location.
Labour recognise that a comprehensive EV charging network will put additional demands on the UK’s grid infrastructure and pledge to remove the barriers to grid expansion. Labour say that this will facilitate the largest upgrade to the national transmission infrastructure in a generation. Expansions to the grid will also allow businesses to install their own charging infrastructure for their EV fleets.
If you are ready to explore the world of electric motoring and would like to see what is available in the second hand market, give us a call today to book time with one of our EV Experts at our Surrey or Hampshire stores.