Exclusive: DfT accused of favouritism by EV leaders

As I reveal ONLY carmakers got the Transport Secretary's ear to discuss the ZEV mandate

Hello, I’m Tom Riley, and welcome to The Fast Charge, a British EV newsletter.

Today’s edition is a day later than normal for a variety of reasons, not least the spending review.

Top story… I reveal that during the latest ZEV mandate consultation, the Transport Secretary only met with carmakers. This has led to fury about how the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles is conducting its stakeholder engagement, prompting accusations of favouritism, with one senior EV leader branding them “shambolic”.

Elsewhere… A great step forward in getting charge point accessibility into the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, BYD may launch a European charging network, and Believ gets £300m injection.

As always, if you have any comments or feedback, please reply to this email or use the links below. And if you’ve not done so already, consider upgrading to paid.

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Fury across EV sector as Transport Secretary only discussed the ZEV mandate with carmakers

Background: Between Christmas Eve and 18 February this year, the Department for Transport ran a highly anticipated consultation on making amendments to the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate. The result was announced by the Prime Minister at Jaguar Land Rover’s factory on 7 April. In his speech, Starmer revealed a weakening of requirements, whereby hybrids can exist for longer and manufacturers have even more flexibility to meet targets. However, when it came to policies that might help increase vehicle uptake, such as EV charging or used EV grants, there was nothing.

After the consultation was published… Numerous EV-related businesses and representative organisations I spoke to were very frustrated. They felt that the changes only benefited carmakers, especially those that were significantly behind others that had transitioned more quickly. As a result of the anger, especially from the charging networks and leasing companies, it was widely rumoured that a support package would be forthcoming. (See post by CEO of ChargeUK outside No10 in April about this).

Well, as yesterday’s spending review showed… There’s still no clarity on that package. Yes, Chancellor Reeves announced £400m for EV charging, but where it’ll go is unclear. What is clear is that this money is not new. It’s believed to be repurposed funding from the long-unused £950m Rapid Charge Fund. Which, by my maths, means the charging industry has had £550m chopped away by the Treasury. Meanwhile, that figure is dwarfed by £1.4 billion that has been allocated to increasing vehicle uptake, with specific mention of vans and trucks.

🤔 Given all this cash and support for carmakers, one might assume that manufacturers are DfT’s golden children. And you’d probably be right…

I recently asked DfT about the number of meetings the Transport Secretary had during the consultation period. And I can reveal that, despite promises of “a significant programme of engagement” during the Winter consultation period, the Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, only engaged in eight meetings about the ZEV mandate policy. What’s more, ALL of these meetings were exclusively with carmakers - she didn’t meet any networks, home charging firms, used car dealers, or even any representative bodies outside the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

Instead, Heidi hosted seven bilateral meetings with… Nissan, BMW, Stellantis, JLR, Ford, Toyota, and SMMT. The Transport Sec also hosted a separate roundtable with all the above, plus other ‘large manufacturers’, including VW, Kia, Mercedes Benz, Hyundai, Renault, Volvo, Honda, and SAIC (MG’s parent company).

Screenshot of the FOI response

Where’s Tesla? I thought that too, but it seems Tesla couldn’t attend the larger roundtable, so they met separately with Lillian Greenwood, the EV responsible minister, who hosted her own roundtable with broader EV industry stakeholders, such as charging networks.

However… While it’s great to know networks weren’t totally left out of the ZEV policy discussions, they only got airtime with a junior minister. But, more worryingly to me, I have learnt that many stakeholders, who have previously been engaged by DfT/OZEV on EV matters, didn’t get to meet officials or ministers at all. I understand some business representatives are still yet to meet officials at all.

This alleged favouritism has led to fury in some quarters about DfT’s changed stakeholder engagement strategy. In a particularly strong statement, one senior EV industry representative told The Fast Charge this week:

“[The] Government's stakeholder management specifically by OZEV has been shambolic, bordering on deliberate, with clear favourites selected. This has alienated large segments of industry. The last Government did not do this, and we are left longing for a return to sensible stakeholder management that we got used to under the last Government.”