Finally confirmed: Say hello to our new EV Minister
Plus, I am launching the EV Savings Club to help owners drive for less
Hello, I’m Tom Riley, and welcome back to The Fast Charge, a British EV newsletter.
It’s a slightly snappy email today due to time constraints on my part. All will become clear next week.
Top story in today’s edition… After several weeks discussing the pros and cons, the Department for Transport has finally crowned Keir Mather the new ‘Decarbonisation Minister’.
Also, a big news for me... Alongside my brother, I am pleased today to launch the EV Savings Club - a free fortnightly digest of tips and tricks to help motorists drive electric for less. All the details and our first consumer warning below!
Elsewhere... EV attitudes, refreshed EV facts, and Labour conference. As ever, if you have any comments or feedback, please reply to this email or message me on LinkedIn.
Confirmed: The new EV Minister IS Keir Mather MP (Here’s a quick biography)
Headline: After several weeks in deliberation, the Department for Transport has confirmed that Keir Mather, the 27-year-old MP for Selby, is the Minister responsible for decarbonisation. Therefore, he is the ‘EV Minister’ and replaces Lilian Greenwood MP.
Why so long? I understand the reason the decision around ministerial responsibilities took so long was that, genuinely, there was a concern that Mather’s inability to drive would look daft. And, yes, it does. Whenever I’ve brought it up down the pub, on a call, or over a coffee… people laughed.
However... As funny as it is, I’m told that DfT ultimately decided - which was my original view as well - that to be a minister for something doesn’t mean you have to understand it fully. The whole point of a minister is to listen, to sieve, and to implement. In any case, I hear the early signs in DfT are that Mather is a seriously smart cookie, so I expect the industry will find that reassuring.
Also... It’s worth knowing that while Mather is now responsible for EVs, that does not make him the ‘Roads Minister’ - that is Simon Lightwood. Instead, it seems DfT has carved decarbonisation/EVs out to go in Mather’s brief. All in, Mather is responsible for aviation, maritime, and decarbonisation. Which is probably about right, given his experience. See all the responsibilities here.
So, what is his experience? Not much, in truth. Like many MPs, he is a little bit of a copy-and-paste, but with some differences.
Starting from the beginning... Mather is from Hull. He is currently 27, making him the youngest minister since Gladstone in 1834, and he’s always been a political obsessive. Reports from the time of his by-election suggest that Mather has always wanted to be in politics. His mother remarked that she once drove him around Hull so he could meet all the local MPs. His school years were spent between state and, apparently, a little bit of private education. At 18, he attended Oxford University and studied History and Politics. He then completed a Master’s at Oxford on public policy. He was in the Oxford Union debating society and also co-chair of Oxford’s Labour Club.
After education... Mather worked for Wes Streeting MP as his parliamentary researcher before doing some years in public affairs at the CBI. This was all in London until he was parachuted into Selby, where, using his Northern roots, a swell of support for Labour against the formerly incumbent Tories, he became Britain's youngest MP. While an MP, he’s voted in line with the Party in Parliament and was himself an Assistant Whip before taking on this role.
What's his vibe? He sounds very serious and ambitious. One former Oxford classmate recalls Mather being very into ‘new Labour’ and politics with ‘only a handful of real friends’. This friend told The Evening Standard that Corbynites tried to block his election to the Oxford Labour Club. However, it seems he was comfortable enough to campaign with Corbyn at some point in his life - as the image below suggests.
Anything on transport? Well, clearly, he can’t drive. But, after stalking his social media, in his role as an MP, Mather has campaigned to improve roads, making posts about potholes. He’s also advocated for ‘traffic calming’ measures in his constituency. Better public transport was a big plank of his original election run, in a 2023 campaign video, he said, “I want to see frequent, reliable public transport back as a viable option for people across our communities.” How this translates to his new role will be interesting. He is yet to comment publicly on any EV policy.
Final niche bits... He appears to like the drink Oasis Citrus Punch - big vote in my book - and enjoys playing Rugby. I understand when working in London, he was a member of London Stags RFC - South London’s largest LGBTQ+ inclusive rugby club. Also, I believe he’s left-handed. If not, this picture suggests he doesn’t know how to use a knife and fork.
Have you had any contact with Minister Mather? Do drop me a note with your impression.
Launching today: Introducing the EV Savings Club
Headline: Today, I am pleased to launch to you the EV Savings Club - a free fortnightly email that will provide a simple round-up of tips, tricks, and advice that could help EV owners save money.
Why? Switching to an EV should help people save money, but the reality is not always that simple, especially in the UK. And even more so when you don’t have a driveway. Different tariffs, charging network prices, and offers are often scattered across dozens of sites and apps, buried in small print, or hidden across forums. The EV Savings Club will cut through that - offering simple, independent, jargon-free tips that put drivers first.
This has never been more important... With millions of drivers expected to switch to EVs in the coming years, and with many of those not having driveways or, frankly, the same interest in the tech as early adopters have done, I believe now is the right time to launch this project.
It’s not just me... I have co-founded the new ‘service’ alongside my brother, Charles, who is an operations and growth expert. We last collaborated on a side project in 2020 called Lockdown Loo - like Airbnb for public lavs during Covid-19. Our website was used half a million times each month for a year, so we’re going to see if we can recreate some of that success. He’s supporting while also hunting for a new role. Apart from his dislike of apple crumble, he’s a thoroughly excellent person who any company would be lucky to have.
🚨 Yesterday, we published our first three tips!
1) A warning to all those looking to use the Electric Car Grant about accidentally falling into the luxury tax trap [Including a DfT response]
2) How OVO is changing its ‘Anytime’ tariff from 4 November - what drivers need to know
3) How certain drivers can bag extra Nectar points this October.
Read our first tips and sign up to the club here 👇
🤝 I’m very keen to hear from people about this project. Whether it’s your own tips, or something your company is doing that saves drivers money. Let’s talk. Either reply to me here or email: evsavingsclub[at]gmail.com
Quick EV news...
📉 Autotrader, ChargeUK and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) yesterday updated their EV facts as part of their joint campaign to combat misinformation. The new update showed the EV price premium over traditional ICE cars has fallen to a record low. See the facts here.
👍 Used EV sales have overtaken diesels for the first time on the platform Cinch. Read more.
📆 Save the date! New EV charging stats from DfT are being published on 30 October. See here.
🎤 At Labour Party Conference, during her speech, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander was pretty punchy in rejecting the notion that Labour has a ‘war against the motorist’. GB News report her as saying, “Let me be clear. Under this Government, there is no such thing as a war on the motorist. Never has been, never will be. I drive, but guess what, I walk and I cycle too. And so, does our brilliant Local Transport Minister, Lilian Greenwood. We both take buses, we both take trains, trams, and taxis too. So let’s dispense with the imaginary problems that are conjured up by conspiracies and cranks, and let’s focus on solving the real-world problems instead.”
📊 According to an Ipos survey on EV attitudes commissioned for DfT this year and published this week by DfT, 51% of EV owners with home charging do not use a specific EV tariff. Wow. Also reinforcing the launch of the EV Savings Club, it seems 47% of respondents desire cheaper public charging prices. Given that 91% of BEV respondents had access to home charging, I expect without changes that 47% figure will only go up. See here.
Before you go... As a reminder, going forward from next week, most of the time this newsletter will be behind a paywall. So do drop me a note to get a deal.