EV Strategy: (ECC Committee Report)

Baroness Randerson Excerpts

Wednesday 16th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Randerson (LD)]

My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lady Parminter and the members of the committee on an excellent and comprehensive report. This has been an important debate because it is about our future: the future of our planet and our health. As the report says, transport is our highest-emitting sector, with passenger cars responsible for the majority of those emissions, so it is a pity that we have had to wait nearly 10 months since the report was published to have it debated in the House.

Although the consensus represented in the report has not substantially changed, there have been some significant fluctuations within the industry and in sales levels, as several noble Lords pointed out. The automotive industry has certainly experienced increasing frustration that the ZEV mandate, which I regard as the stick, has not been matched by sufficient carrots to encourage the take-up of EVs by private individuals, companies and the public sector. Sales have, frankly, flagged. The SMMT has pointed out that, since the previous Government’s change of policy, which I will refer to later, private new car demand has declined by almost a fifth. This is despite the visible proof that EVs are lovely cars—I know because I have my second one, so I declare what I regard as a keen interest. They are quiet, clean and smooth, and they have wonderful acceleration. Once you have had one, it is difficult to go back. Diesel and petrol cars are noisy, clunky and very smelly—even the modern ones.

So why the problems with EV sales? Many noble Lords have tackled these issues. Fundamental is the lack of consumer confidence. The committee emphasised that the Government need to do much more to stimulate and encourage consumer confidence. There have been serious and mounting problems. The previous Government, following the Uxbridge by-election, decided that they were not just the motorist’s friend but the unreformed motorist’s friend, scorning lower speed limits and traffic calming measures as well as championing the old internal combustion engine. Hence we had the change of date from 2030 to 2035 for the end of internal combustion engine sales. That fundamentally undermined the ZEV mandate, as the two dates no longer matched and the buyers felt no sense of urgency.

Alongside this, there was a sustained media campaign. My noble friend Lady Parminter referred to it as a blatant campaign, and I agree with her. It was largely but not exclusively in the right-wing press, and there were degrees of misinformation and anti-EV stories that built up on a weekly basis. To give one example, the Luton Airport fire in the multi-storey car park was initially and wrongly reported to have taken place in an electric vehicle but actually took place in a diesel vehicle. That misreporting got repeated on a regular basis. As noble Lords have said, EVs are not more likely to catch fire, and are actually rather less likely to catch fire, than internal combustion vehicles.

There has been a knock-on impact on insurance premiums, and the noble Baroness, Lady Young, referred to fairy stories being peddled about battery life. I sold a seven year-old BMW, a very early EV, and there had been no discernible deterioration in the battery and its range in those years, over hundreds of thousands of miles travelled. What should have happened in response to all this misinformation was a formal and co-ordinated campaign, led by the previous Government along with the auto industry and the fire and health authorities, to rebut misinformation, lead with positive stories and provide a database of reliable information for potential buyers. We needed government leadership. Will we get that leadership now? Will we get that co-ordinated campaign? It is very much a case of better late than never.

We also need the Government to lead by example with the transformation of the government car fleet. The committee made recommendations on that, and the original government response to those recommendations simply noted them. We need a totally EV or hydrogen government car fleet in the very near future—by the end of 2025. I would give the noble Lord that length of time for that transformation. It should be possible by then.

Of course, this is about very much more than just supportive government rhetoric. Previously the Government took their foot off the pedal—I am sorry about the pun, but one finds it very difficult to talk about transport without analogies—far too soon on financial incentives to encourage the uptake of EVs. Those vehicles are still noticeably more expensive to buy than internal combustion engine vehicles. It is important to emphasise, however, that they are very cheap to run. They are not just cheap to refuel, they are also cheap in terms of the amount of maintenance they need. They are a very good investment in that respect.

The SMMT points out that our neighbours and competitors across the world largely have incentive schemes. France, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Canada, Australia and many US states have incentive schemes. Norway has more EVs now than internal combustion vehicles. It has worked the incentive schemes brilliantly. I therefore very much hope that, in the Budget on 30 October, we will see a new approach. If we do not see some changes from the Government, EVs will remain the preserve of the better-off and that is not socially acceptable.

We do not just need purchasing incentives; we need grants, because the cost of EV charge point installation is considerable. We need to avoid EVs being classed as luxury vehicles in terms of vehicle excise duty. Very importantly, we also need to reduce VAT on public charging points. Otherwise, those with drives will always have an inbuilt advantage over the 40% of our population who have no access to vehicle charging facilities—the noble Lord, Lord Woodley, made this point. So I urge the Government to be bold on this. The amounts of money involved are relatively small at a UK level.

My noble friend Lady Parminter referred to “black holes” in the availability of charge points. The report goes into detail on this, and motorway service stations have been talked of by other noble Lords. The committee report refers to other problems, but I want to go further. Many decades ago, a previous Government regulated the way we buy petrol and diesel. The nozzle shape is different; it is impossible to get confused between a petrol and a diesel nozzle. The display of prices is regulated, so they are calculated in a way that enables customers to compare them from one location to another, and they are visible and so on. There are a huge number of associated safety regulations. A roof is almost always a feature of a filling station—you are protected from the sun and from the rain. But EV owners appear not to be entitled to this. The noble Lord, Lord Birt, made reference to that.

The method of plugging in varies from one type of car to another and from one provider of EV services to another. There is no roof, so you cannot see the screen very often, or you are standing there in the pouring rain. The charge point is very often in the back corner of a large car park, where you feel vulnerable after dark. You very often do not know how much you are going to pay until after you have used the facility, and it is also difficult to know how you can pay. Very often, you have to charge up a card with £5 or £10, using a provider that you know you will never use again, so you will never get your money back in a future charging. Why is it that we cannot have a standardised system, so that people feel reassured? It is not just range anxiety, it is being able to charge up—it is charging anxiety when you get there.

It is time that the industry woke up to the brave new world and provided the very best facilities. The people at Shell are my heroes because they are beginning to do just that. It is essential, for example, that everyone can pay by credit card. The noble Lord, Lord Lilley, did not think we should have subsidies, but I say that subsidies are a well-worn path for new industries—we smooth out their birth pangs—and I urge the Government to look not just at reinstating targeted subsidies but at simple, inexpensive, practical measures, such as standardised signage on motorways to show where you can charge your car. The report covers other key issues such as grid connections, the need to change the planning approach and so on, but those are things that will have to come, whatever happens about electric vehicles.

Finally, we have a new Government and, I hope, a new attitude and a new determination to stimulate this important industry. It will bring jobs, better health and a greater hope for the future of our planet. I hope that the Government will match any measures with reinstating the 2030 date for ending sales of internal combustion cars.