As part of the Evening Standard’s Plug-It-In campaign, the UK newspaper has launched a 10,000-word electric vehicle (EV) white paper: The Evening Standard roadmap for driving the electrification and decarbonisation of London’s transport.
The paper brings together all of the best ideas from the team of experts that attended the newspaper’s Plug-It-In Summit which took place last November. The one-day event brought together policymakers, business leaders, innovators and industry experts for a series of talks and keynote speeches.
The Summit had a series of high-profile speakers including Toddington Harper, GRIDSERVE CEO, Niall Riddell, Paua CEO and co-founder, Jonathan Goodman and Fredrika Klarén, from electric carmaker Polestar, and Graeme Cooper, Head of Future Markets at National Grid. Ade Thomas, founder of the EV SUMMIT, also spoke on the What do we need to do to make London Net Zero 2030 a reality? panel at the event.
As a result of this event, the white paper sets out how to work with the auto industry to make sure legislation and charging infrastructure is in place to help the UK capital transition away from petrol and diesel vehicles to become a fully electric city.
Initiatives the white paper outlines include:
- Removing VAT on public chargers.
- Capping premium rates on rapid chargers.
- Outlining the importance of hitting 2030 targets for improving air quality and the need to go electric.
- Devising an Oyster-style card offering Londoners access to all charging points and a flat rate across the city.
- Educating Londoners about how and where to charge electric cars and building confidence in the charging network.
- Overcoming resistance to electric vehicles by encouraging test drives.
- Making it easier for companies to build chargers — and harder not to.
- Removing petrol and diesel cars from London as soon as possible.
- Lobbying for the reinstatement of electric vehicle subsidies.
- Growing the second-hand market to make electric cars more affordable.
It’s a compelling read that outlines the urgent need for clean air now and how ramping up the use of electric vehicles is vital in supporting this. The full story and white paper can be seen here.