Special report: Inside the battle for accessible charge points
Special report: Inside the battle for accessible charge points
Without tougher action, disabled EV drivers could be left behind
Hello, I’m Tom Riley, and welcome back to The Fast Charge, a British EV newsletter.
Today’s edition is a special report that looks in-depth at the ongoing battle between networks, industry leaders, and disability campaigners to improve the accessibility of public charge points.
This report reveals how…
The British Standards Institution is considering revising the UK’s landmark accessibility guidance (PAS 1899) due to poor implementation
Elsewhere, hundreds of disabled drivers have formed a group to campaign for better adoption of PAS 1899
Meanwhile, charging networks are monitoring the campaign’s activities closely, with some operators fearful of facing legal action for discrimination; and
A growing number of EV businesses are calling on the guidance to be mandated - so disabled drivers don’t get left behind.
Thank you to all those who shared tips and comments for this feature. As ever, if you have any feedback, do get in touch via my contact details below or reply to this email.
Inside the battle for accessible charge points
The UK’s public charging network has grown hugely over the past few years. It now boasts more than 60,000 devices, across tens of networks, and all largely installed – as the government hoped – by private capital.
And it’s not just the quantity that has been going up, the quality has been improving too. Whereas several years ago you’d regularly hear stories about broken or complicated charge points, now these are few and far between. The only lingering challenge for public charging is the cost versus home electricity. But, with energy prices lowering, it’s expected these may come down too.
In short, it’s all sounding good on Public Charger FM.
That is, however, unless you’re one of the estimated 1.35 million disabled motorists who will either partially, or entirely, have to rely on this public network.
Why? Because at the moment it is largely unusable. Only last week, Vauxhall found just 2% of public chargers it surveyed met the British Standard Institution’s accessibility guidelines for EV chargers – which were sponsored by the UK government back in 2022. The standard (known as PAS 1899) sets out guidance for delivering inclusive public charge points, so disabled and older people are not excluded from the EV transition.
It’s presently a dire state of affairs, which is why hundreds of disabled drivers have since joined a campaign group called ‘Charge2Access’ – set up in 2022 to improve disabled access to EV charging in the UK.
One of the group’s members is Joyce. She is a wheelchair user, and when faced with the option of getting an EV recently she gave it “great consideration”, though decided to extend the lease on her petrol Volvo due to “concerns over range then not being able to charge independently.”
Joyce is not anti-EV by any stretch. In fact, she does not always find refueling her ICE car straightforward. Joyce has an app that notifies petrol forecourt staff for assistance, though she says that these notifications can be ignored. This means Joyce often has to deal with transferring into her chair to put the fuel in herself. “The other alternative is to blow my horn and wave my blue badge around, something I detest and refuse to do due to the humiliation.”
This experience has seemingly made her question how a similar solution might work for EV chargers. “Say the app works and someone comes to plug the car in, do I sit in it, unable to get out while it charges? I feel sure that would breach health and safety, it would certainly breach my patience threshold and deprive me of the wander around a service station and the caffeine fix.”
These concerns illustrate why the BSI’s guidelines are so crucial for those 1.35 million people. And it’s why Joyce spends time lobbying her local council to ensure the standard is factored into new EV charger planning applications. Amazingly, it’s still not the default. Joyce has so far been successful in getting the standard added to one application.
Despite Joyce’s efforts, including speaking to her MP and government ministers, it’s just not enough. And that is what the campaign group is all about. Bringing together disability activists across the country to apply pressure on industry and government.
While the group is only small, its activities are seemingly working. Accessibility is now a regular agenda point at the board tables of EV companies, and members of Charge2Access have been consulted by the industry as a result. This is because, while some operators see accessibility as a way to positively stand out, others see it as a reputational risk – with potentially large costs in retrospective upgrades should they get things wrong.
Perhaps demonstrating this interest (or anxiety) among networks, of the 600 members of Charge2Access on Facebook, I have found that many are executives at operators including Shell, PoGo, Connected Kerb, Applegreen Electric, Calm, and For:EV, to name a few. Likewise, as I understand it, the industry group ChargeUK keeps an eye on the campaign efforts too.
Why are the networks so worried?
Two reasons. Firstly, there is a fear that the incoming government could ‘mandate’ the BSI standard. And, secondly, there’s a concern that disabled drivers may end up taking legal action against operators for discrimination. And, in fact, several campaigners suggest they have already spoken to lawyers.
It's not clear exactly how lawyers would go about making an argument, though a letter, written by Jesse Norman MP in 2018 while a Transport minister, and shared on the Charge2Access group, may be the answer.
The letter states, regarding the accessibility of chargers, “existing legislation means that chargepoints installed in the UK should be installed with disabled people in mind as the provision of public chargepoints is covered by the Equality Act 2010”.
Crucially, a key bit of Norman’s note, adds: “This act includes a reasonable adjustments duty that applies to, amongst others, a person or organisation providing services, goods or facilities to the public.” Norman goes on to say how petrol stations are listed as an example by the Equality and Human Rights Commission of where the Equality Act applies, noting “the same reasonable adjustments duty would therefore apply to the host site of a chargepoint.”
Four years after this letter, a very different legal requirement shifted the government and industry into gear on accessibility: the ZEV mandate. As a result of the surging EV sector, in 2021, the BSI was commissioned to create a best practice guide for installers of public chargers.
It was a significant moment. And while voluntarily, the early rhetoric from government and charge point operators was always along the lines of ‘the market decides, and who wouldn’t want to make their devices available to as many drivers as possible?’
Since PAS 1899 was published two years ago, the public charging network has grown 80% from 34,637 devices to 62,536. However, despite the government saying repeatedly they would monitor the uptake of the guidelines, they conceded to me this month that they have no specific figures on how many PAS 1899 compliant chargers have been installed to date. This fact is true of BSI too, who also have no figures.
This suggests two things. Firstly, the recent Vauxhall study contains the only ‘numbers’ available. And, secondly, if you are disabled, there is no way to locate a compliant public charger.
While many networks have visibly been trying to demonstrate strong accessibility credentials, one senior leader I spoke to at a large operator suggested all networks were failing. They blamed the fact BSI’s guidelines were not designed with the manufacturers of charge points in mind. “The choice is either having no chargers or ones which are inaccessible.”
A separate executive told me manufacturers of charging stations – which operators in the UK buy and install from – will ultimately prioritise their largest market, which in the case of most rapid chargers is mainland Europe, not the UK.
As a result of unsuitable infrastructure, Andrew Miller, the CEO of Motability Operations, the largest supplier of cars for disabled people, has expressed concerns saying recently: “The lack of accessible charging options, especially for those without off-street parking, is a major hurdle and we’re concerned that the UK is not where it needs to be in making the EV transition affordable and accessible for all.”
This sentiment was also echoed by Marc Palmer, Head of Strategy and Insights at Auto Trader, who told me, “It feels inappropriate that we should be building infrastructure in 2024 that doesn’t cater for everyone. The opportunity is there to get this right – we’re not trying to retrofit Tube stations or mountain pathways, this is a start-from-scratch endeavour that should be equal from the start.”
A new approach…
Given these increasing concerns, the BSI recently initiated a stakeholder group to consider reviewing PAS 1899. This group comprises a broad range of people, such as charging networks.
To understand what a review of the guidelines may look like, I spoke to Nick Flemming, the BSI’s Director of Transport Standards.
“We've pulled together a cross-stakeholder group to start reviewing the standard and barriers to adoption,” Nick explains. “We haven’t yet made a decision on if or when the standard is to be revised. It's more a group to look at some the challenges or some of the opportunities related to implementation of it and how we can ensure that the standard has an impact that we wanted to have.”
Nick explains that, practically, this means looking at “how we can help support implementation of the standard. Is there a role for additional guidance around the standards to help support interpretation in different environments for example? Can we develop additional material that would support adoption? Such as case studies or diagrams."
From my conversation with Nick, it seems a possibility the guidance may be revised so charge point operators can more easily comply with ‘aspects’ of the standard, rather than the full thing. Understandably, while PAS 1899 remains voluntary, it makes sense for the BSI to design something that will be taken up by the intended recipients. However, by making it easier for networks to add kitemarks to their chargers, there is surely a risk this won’t deliver what disabled drivers need.
I asked Nick about this and if a review could end up being seen as a ‘watering down’ of the guidelines, he said: “I think it's more about the journey of implementation, and making sure elements of the standard are used to deliver the right outcomes.”
Joyce agrees with making the standard easier for network operators to follow, though she writes “but NOT at the expense of accessibility”.
When I spoke earlier this year to ChargeUK’s Chair, Chris Pateman-Jones, he made it clear that the group would be lobbying to make sure accessibility rules are “applied as sensibly and as well as possible, without it necessarily being something that's being used as a tool to beat people with.”
While during the election nothing is happening, it’s likely a new Labour government will get involved in this topic, particularly if they end up bringing back forward the ban on petrol and diesel cars.
At the EV Association for England’s recent ‘manifesto’ launch in May, which called on a mandate for charge point accessibility, Labour’s Shadow Roads Minister, Bill Esterson MP, suggested he’d support making a network inclusive saying: “It is vital that the voices of EV drivers, both current and prospective, remain heard and that their needs are met. I look forward to working with dedicated members’ associations such as EVA England to ensure our progress towards net zero is inclusive, affordable, and fair for all.”
Time to get tougher?
All the evidence points towards the next government needing to decide whether to be tougher. Gordon McCullough, CEO of the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers, believes we’ve reached a point where the standard should no longer be voluntary.
“Put simply the charging networks have not taken into account disabled EV owners,” say Gordon. “PAS 1899 is great, but it is voluntary. Legislation is required to make it a mandatory requirement. This would be a significant development, but if there is to be a just transition to net zero, then disabled people should not be excluded from or compromised in the use of electric vehicles.”
At the MOVE transport conference in June, Lisa Thomas, Chief Marketing Officer at Motability Operations, shared this view telling an audience, “We hope one day [the standards] will be mandated.”
Joyce wants to see the same. “It should be a legal requirement and all infrastructure should be accessible,” she writes. “We shouldn’t have to check planning applications then pester planning departments asking for compliance with BSI.”
If a legal requirement were to be brought in, a consultation would no doubt be needed – meaning it may take a long time to come into being. However, some thinking has already been happening, with industry talk suggesting future projects backed by the government’s LEVI fund could be required to follow PAS 1899 as standard – this would certainly save people like Joyce from having to contact councils.
What next?
It is clear to me researching this area that, over the next year, charge point operators are fairly joined up on exactly what they want to see in a BSI review. Therefore, it’s incumbent on disability groups and campaigners to be united about what is required – so we don’t end up with infrastructure that doesn’t work for all.
ChargeUK commented that its members are “committed to building world class charging infrastructure that gives all drivers access to convenient and affordable charging.”
The association added: “ChargeUK is pleased to be working with the government and other relevant stakeholders as a member of the BSI’s PAS 1899 Review, to ensure that as the transition to EVs progresses the guidelines are able to deliver our shared goal of nationwide infrastructure that supports everyone.”
The Department for Transport declined to comment.
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