- UK EV charging industry voice, ChargeUK, this week published its new white paper: ‘Delivering Affordable Charging for All’.
- Its publication comes as the UK surpasses 85,000 public charge points, with billions of pounds worth of investment set to grow the public network by another 30% per year.
- However, with average public charging prices having risen by around 38% since 2021 thanks to soaring energy costs, the need to bring public charging costs more in line with home charging has never been more crucial to encourage more EV adoption.
ChargeUK sets outs recommendations to reduce rising public charging costs
Public charging infrastructure may be more abundant than ever in the UK, but increasing EV affordability – particularly for those unable to charge up on domestic energy – will be crucial for allowing all new car buyers to make the switch to EVs ahead of the government’s 2030 and 2035 ZEV mandates.
The new white paper from ChargeUK, which can be downloaded here, shows changes to the EV charging cost argument in recent years. Back at the start of the 2020s, both domestic and public charging options both worked out more cost effectively than the fuel costs of a typical petrol car, making the EV argument a no-brainer. However, in the last four years, the average cost of public charging has risen by 38% – throwing that equation out off balance. The standing charges alone faced by CPOs are now making up 70% of the total energy bills they face, significantly contributing to this rising price for customers.
With these unsustainable price rises in mind, ChargeUK has laid out three specific, deliverable actions that it wants the government to take to bring public charging costs down for both CPOs and the end customer:
- Tackle high energy costs – Bring down standing costs for CPOs, and extend levy exemptions to the charging sector.
- Boost the charging business case through inclusion into the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) – Bring EV charging into the UK’s RTFO, allowing CPOs to generate additional revenue. Similar schemes in the EU which already cover EV charging have raised the equivalent of up to 8.5p per kWh for CPOs
- Bring down public charging VAT in line with domestic charging – Echoing calls we’ve heard in the industry for a number of years, ChargeUK asks for the VAT on public charging to be reduced from 20% to 5% – in line with domestic charging. This could save up to 6.75p per kWh on slow and fast charging, and up to 9.5p per kWh on rapid and ultra-rapid charging.
Vicky Read, CEO of ChargeUK, used her EV SUMMIT keynote today to comment on the importance of the white paper:
“I do not believe that chargepoint availabity is a barrier to adoption today. It’s the number 38% (the figure that public charging prices have risen by since 2021) that I want to talk to you about today. That is where we invite government to take further deliberate action, just as it did with the Electric Car Grant.”
