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Despite encouraging EV sales, the UK’s charging infrastructure is nowhere near where it needs to be by 2030. So who will build and finance the revolution?
Despite encouraging EV sales, the UK’s charging infrastructure is nowhere near where it needs to be by 2030. So who will build and finance the revolution?
In 2019, Andy Burnham made a promise to the people of Manchester. In 20 years, the city that he presided over as mayor would be carbon neutral. Renewable energy would power homes and businesses, 3 million trees would be planted, and by 2035, citizens would drive 100% emission-free vehicles through Manchester’s pedestrian and cycling avenues.
Marvelous. But with the adoption of electric vehicles (EV) currently low and many residents lacking access to off-street parking, the realization of this pure transportation utopia will be incremental. Until then, there are a number of hurdles to overcome, and not just in Manchester. These include ‘range anxiety’ among the public, the high cost of electric vehicles and, perhaps most fundamentally, where they will be charged.
“The actual demand for infrastructure today is still very limited because the number of electric vehicle drivers [in Greater Manchester] it’s still in the thousands, ”says Asif Ghafoor, CEO and co-founder of the green infrastructure company. Iduna. But, if Burnham’s plan goes ahead, and with the 2030 national ban on gasoline and diesel cars on the horizon as well, this number should steadily increase. Like many aspects of the green transition, the conundrum of where to charge EVs versus how many EVs need to be charged has a different feel than chicken and egg.
Iduna recently raised £ 4 million through ethical investment crowdfunding and the ISA Abundance Investment platform, to build a network of 50 fast, fast and ultra-fast chargers across the city. The company is also updating the existing network of chargers, of which there are 132, to include ‘smart’ features like data and analytics.
It’s a small initial wave of installations, but Ghafoor notes that it’s less about volume and more about understanding how they’re used. “Shippers talk to us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” he says. “We know when they are on, when they are off, if there are any maintenance issues.”
It’s also about changing the culture around driving. Chargers will be available at convenient locations, such as supermarkets, but charging centers, Iduna’s version of a gas station, are also being prepared. The hubs could be powered by renewable energy, and Ghafoor wants them to be more than just a place to go for fuel and a snack. “There is no need to continue copying that model. There are other ways to do it, ”he says.
Electric vehicle ownership in Manchester remains low. Image: Will MCue
Although electric vehicle ownership in Manchester remains very low, Ghafoor sees this as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. He explains that range anxiety is fueled by the fact that there are so few chargers. But as people begin to look at the infrastructure, they will feel more and more confident that buying an electric vehicle is a solid investment.
National figures on EV charging and commissioning inspire greater confidence that mass adoption is not a question of if, but of when. Although sales of all new cars fell by almost a third in 2020, one in 10 of them was for plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. It was a considerable increase in 2019, when low and zero-emission vehicles accounted for one in 30 new registrations.
According to Zap-Map, a digital platform that controls the UK charging network, between the end of 2016 and 2020, the number of public chargers increased by 220%. Funding to the tune of £ 300 million has also just been assigned by government regulator Ofgem to help build 3,550 new charging stations across the UK from 2023.
The abundance saw a higher than usual number of Manchester-based investors, suggesting that residents are eager to welcome electric vehicles to their local area. Image: Michael Fousert
Despite promising statistics, companies like Iduna looking to provide the necessary infrastructure cannot find financing from traditional banks. “TO [typical] The question a bank asks is: “If you put a charger on Regent Road in Manchester, how do you know someone is going to use it and where is the historical data to test it?” The same thing I imagine they asked someone when they built a gas forecourt in 1910, ”says Ghafoor.
In the absence of conventional financing, Abundance investors stepped in, breaking the platform’s record for money raised on the first day of an investment. The total of £ 4 million was raised in less than a week. “With a new industry, we often see a lot of follow-up questions from investors, but this seemed to strike a chord,” says Bruce Davis, managing director of Abundance.
Davis adds that they saw higher-than-usual numbers from Manchester-based investors, suggesting that residents are eager to welcome electric vehicles to their local area.
Most experts indicate that around 2025 or 2026, we will see a real shift away from combustion engines.
To encourage early adoption, some charging points in the UK are still free to use (23 per cent of all public chargers according to Zap-Map), but as private companies intervene, this figure is likely to decline. cut back, says Ghafoor. Some city councils have gotten the ball rolling by providing small networks of charging stations, eventually looking for private contractors to grow and operate the network. This was the case in Greater Manchester: the existing chargers had previously been installed by the public body Transport for Greater Manchester, but will now be managed by Iduna through the Be.EV brand. A fee receivable is expected to be introduced later this year.
“Transport for Greater Manchester has done a good job of establishing a contract that still maintains the voice of the public sector, but actually encourages private sector investment to achieve the end goal,” says Ghafoor.
With the UK’s ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles coming into effect in less than nine years, there is no time to waste getting the country’s charging network up and running. But will we get there in time?
“Most experts indicate that around 2025 or 2026, we will see a real shift from combustion engines to electric vehicles,” says Ghafoor. “And we are building the network to enable that change now.”
Lead Image: Chuttersnap
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