Electric Vehicles: Transition by 2030

Gavin Newlands Excerpts

Thursday 9th December 2021 Westminster Hall

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship for the first time, Mr Twigg. I congratulate the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) on securing this important debate and on starting us off so well. She made many excellent points throughout her speech and referenced the excellent recommendations of the Transport Committee. I should say that I serve on that Committee, although that was not a self-serving comment.

There have been many fantastic contributions by Members from across the House and the debate has been, in the main, consensual. The hon. Member for Broxtowe (Darren Henry) said that this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, but that we are going too slowly. My colleague on the Transport Committee, the hon. Member for Easington (Grahame Morris), rightly spoke of the challenges facing the national grid and charging outside London, which I will come on to. The hon. Member for Rushcliffe (Ruth Edwards) spoke of a long journey, by the sounds of it, and the relationship strain of taking an electric car on holiday. I can certainly relate to that—not so much the holiday element, but the change in driving style required by an electric car. Mine has changed, my wife’s has not. No doubt I will get into trouble for saying that.

The hon. Member for Vauxhall (Florence Eshalomi), a London MP, made excellent points about range of and the need for greener public transport, which I will briefly cover. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), who is always here and is always welcome, spoke of transport being the largest carbon-emitting sector and urged more urgent action, if I can put it like that. The hon. Member for Leeds North West (Alex Sobel) spoke of the ZEV mandate, which I will probably not have time to cover but which we wholeheartedly support. The hon. Member for Warwick and Leamington (Matt Western), who always takes a keen interest in these matters, started out pretty starkly by saying that we have only nine years but also a very long way to go.

I declare an interest as an owner of an electric vehicle. Thanks in part to the Scottish Government’s electric vehicle loan scheme, I made the switch from diesel to electric this year. In fact, my family went from having two diesel cars to one electric. The bulk of my remarks will cover electric cars, but I will briefly talk about electric buses. Thus far, the Prime Minister’s pledge of 4,000 new green buses has been a pretty damp squib, it has to be said. The three years of the ultra-low emission bus scheme’s operation up to this year resulted in just 58 such buses on the road outside London. It will come as no surprise that London has more ULEBS-funded buses on the road than the rest of England put together. The successor scheme, ZEBRA—zero-emission bus regional areas—has not put a single new bus on the road, and thus far funding has been made available for only 335 electric buses. ZEBRA has been a total flop. The Prime Minister has zero chance of getting to his promised 4,000 buses by the end of this Parliament. In any event, 4,000 buses represents only 10% of the English bus fleet.

In contrast, the Scottish Government have promised to decarbonise more than half the Scottish bus fleet in the same timeframe. We are well into our second Scottish ultra-low emission bus scheme, which, for comparison, has resulted in the equivalent of more than 2,700 buses already ordered or on the road. Indeed, thanks to the Scottish Government’s SULEB schemes and McGill’s Buses, my own area of Renfrewshire has more electric buses on the road than anywhere outside London. These buses need passengers to fill them, and I am glad to say that, by the end of next month, those aged 21 and under will enjoy free bus travel, hopefully instilling some public transport habits into the new generation, helping to reduce car usage by 20% by the end of the decade. We see day to day what progress has been, and is being, made in rolling out the infrastructure we need to move to net zero, so when I look at DFT’s record, I have to say—not for the first time—that I am glad to live in Scotland under a Government with a serious agenda to change our transport options for the better.

Without a mass roll-out of public charging facilities, EVs will simply never be the choice for people for whom residential charging points are simply not possible, especially people who live in flats or multiple-occupancy buildings. The Climate Change Committee estimates that at least 150,000 charge points are needed, while others, such as the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, say that at least 700,000 are needed, but just under 21,000 are currently in use. There has to be a rapid acceleration of investment and a clear strategy for how that target will be met. At the moment, there is no sign that the scale of investment needed matches the reality of what is available. Once again, the Scottish Government are leading on the roll-out of public charging infrastructure, and doing so on the scale needed elsewhere.

According to the UK Government’s own stats, Scotland leads the UK in public rapid charging points, at around 70% per capita higher than average, and nearly double even London’s rapid charging network, and is second only to Greater London in all public charging points. That was not achieved by accident; it was the result of policy decisions taken over the last few years in line with the Scottish Government’s net zero strategy, which aims to transform the country to net zero by 2045, five years ahead of the UK’s current plans. That kind of bold investment in infrastructure needs replicating elsewhere in these isles if we are to collectively meet the challenges of the transition to net zero and the ambition set out by COP26. How that infrastructure is accessed, as has already been referenced, is also a real concern.

When the Transport Committee took evidence on public charging and the interoperability of the many different networks—some publicly run, some delivered by the private sector—the then Minister said that regulations to enforce interoperability were planned for before the end of the year. To date, we have not had those regulations, despite the consultation closing in April and despite the Minister’s promise to the Committee.

There is no sign of forcing operators to have common systems, which would give consumers a seamless experience, regardless of which provider they charge the vehicle with. We do not expect drivers of diesel or petrol vehicles to have to remember which card matches which petrol stations, and it should not be any different for EV drivers. Interoperability is standard in the Netherlands, as has been said, with a larger installed base of public charge points. There is no reason whatsoever why that cannot be implemented here. I hope that the Minister will clarify that point because, if that is indeed the case, the Government need to up their game and get those regulations drafted as quickly as possible.

Just over two years ago, I spoke in a similar debate in this Chamber and mentioned the success of electric vehicles in Norway. At that point, just over half of new cars sold there were EVs. This year, that proportion reached over 77%. So successful has their transition been that the debate in Norway is now not about how to get EVs making up the bulk of the new car market, but how to realistically phase out the remaining petrol and diesel cars on their roads.

That, it must be said, is in an oil and energy-rich, progressive and independent northern European country with the power to act in its own national and international interests without a Whitehall-type system to battle through. Norway shows that if the will and investment are there, the marketplace for cars can be transformed in a relatively short period. Therefore, while I may despair at much of the UK’s track record, the optimist in me—there is an optimist in me, somewhere—still believes that it might be capable of pulling it off, if the political will is there. Of course, that is a big if.

In yesterday’s debate on rail investment, I made the point that, compared with the capital, the rest of England was being badly let down on transport spending year after year. That mistake is being repeated in the roll-out of a public charging network. Again, as the hon. Member for Easington said, it is the north of England losing out, with the north-west and Yorkshire and the Humber at the bottom of the league table, while London streaks ahead.

If the Government are serious about a national EV strategy, it has to be just that: national. If the Scottish Government can fund and support charge points from Unst—the most northerly island in these isles—to the Mull of Galloway at the very south of the country, there should be no reason for English regions to be left behind in the transition to zero emission vehicles. Norway has managed it, Scotland is managing it, and I hope that the Minister will seek advice from her counterparts in those countries and elsewhere on how to drive forward the transformational change needed over the coming years.

To conclude, on the vehicles themselves, it again seems that the UK is in the slow lane while others are powering ahead. If we are to change historical behaviours, we must have an appropriate balance between carrot and stick, but the Government keep shifting that balance before the market is ready for it. The Transport Scotland-funded low carbon transport loan gives potential EV customers an interest-free loan of up to £28,000 for new cars or £20,000 for used ones, and also covers electric motorcycles and e-bikes. Compared with the UK’s grant-only scheme, the interest-free loan scheme is delivering affordability to households who would otherwise be unable to make the switch to electric vehicles. It is also undoubtedly one of the reasons why take up of EVs in Scotland over recent years has considerably outstripped the rest of the UK, outside of London. That loan has also now been extended to include used EVs, which are now an important area of growth in the market.

The top three factors holding potential EV buyers back are cost, access to local charging points, and range anxiety. By rolling out zero-interest loans, the Scottish Government are addressing that first factor; by having so many charging points, they are addressing the second; and by ensuring that no part of the country is untouched, they are addressing the third.

--- Later in debate ---

[Trudy Harrison]

I was going to mention this, but I did have the pleasure of meeting Minister Mallon in Belfast a few weeks ago. I also visited Wrightbus, not far from Belfast, in Ballymena. We are having those conversations with the devolved Administrations—supporting, providing funding and learning how we can collaborate best to ensure that the roll-out reaches all the UK.

[Gavin Newlands]

The Minister mentioned the strategy. Presumably within that strategy will be interoperability. When is that issue going to be addressed? We were told it would be at the end of this year.

[Trudy Harrison]

I will comment on Members’ queries now.

The hon. Member for Bath asked about energy provision. That is a matter for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, as I am sure she knows, but making sure we have the clean electricity is vital. She will know as well that the Prime Minister’s 10-point plan sets out the commitment towards 40 GW of wind by 2030 and 5 GW production capacity for hydrogen. We have also passed the regulated asset base for gigawatt-plus nuclear power stations, so we are not shy of taking action on energy.

The hon. Member for Bath also referred to fairness. I think that is really important, because in this transport revolution we have an opportunity that we perhaps did not have 150 years ago, which is to ensure that everybody is involved, this time in charging vehicles. We are working with organisations such as Motability to make sure that the charging infrastructure can be used by all, including disabled people. This is about ensuring through the regulations we are bringing forward that people know where charging infrastructure is; that they can be sure the infrastructure will work; that they will not need to use a selection of apps, but instead can use contactless, for example; and that we have the interoperability across different providers to provide a really comprehensive network, as is needed as we transition from fossil fuel to a decarbonised transport economy.