FOI reveals DfT anxiety around ZEV mandate
FOI review exposes Transport Secretary concerns over ZEV narrative
Hello, I’m Tom Riley, and welcome back to The Fast Charge, a British EV newsletter.
Top story today… An FOI request sent by this newsletter has found the Transport Secretary has discussed the ZEV mandate with officials four times since taking office. However, what’s more revealing is how the Department for Transport told me this. Story below…
Elsewhere… Carmakers begin to get itchy for incentives pre-Budget, a vote in the EU on Chinese EV import taxes, and new data reveals there are now 70,000 public chargers in the UK.
As ever, if you have any thoughts, please do get in touch via my contact details below or simply reply to this email.
FOI exposes Transport Secretary concerns over her EV narrative
Scoop: Ministers at DfT have had eight meetings where they’ve discussed the Zero Emission Vehicle mandate since taking office on 5 July up to 24 September 2024 (81 days), according to a Freedom of Information submitted by this newsletter.
Details: The release reveals that Transport Secretary Louise Haigh MP was present at four meetings where the ZEV mandate was discussed with officials from the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV). It also shows four recorded instances where junior ministers (presumably all were EV Minister Lilian Greenwood MP) had similar meetings. As a reminder, in their manifesto, Labour promised to ‘restore the phase-out date of 2030 for new cars with internal combustion engines’.
What does the data show? The volume of these meetings suggests that ministers and officials are working towards delivering on this commitment, with a call for input expected soon. The consultation can’t come soon enough, as the void is being filled by carmakers making comments in the press about incentives.
However… Here’s a revealing thing about the table sent to me above last Friday… Originally, that’s not how it looked. The table below is what it looked like when OZEV sent it to me last Tuesday (24 September)…
This table suggests the Transport Secretary had no meetings with officials since taking office to discuss the ZEV mandate.
🤔 Given it’s a key policy for Labour, and has huge public and business implications, I was surprised the Transport Secretary would delegate it fully to a junior minister. So, I shared it with several readers – many of whom were equally nonplussed. I therefore asked the Department for Transport Press Office on Wednesday 25 September “If the Transport Secretary believes the ZEV mandate is important?”. I also sent them the FOI on request.
I asked for a statement by close of play Friday 27 September.
👍 As Friday morning arrived, at 8am I received a helpful follow-up email from OZEV about the original table - the one where it has zero meetings for the Transport Secretary – as I’d asked what period my FOI covered. The official kindly wrote back:
So, recap… on Friday morning, everything is fine. However, eight hours later – 4pm, so just before my deadline with the DfT Press Office – I get another email from the same official (and noticeably in a different style and tone – going from ‘Dear Tom’ to ‘Dear Mr Riley’ etc.). The email wrote:
“Further to the Department’s response dated 24 September 2024 additional information has now come to light which we are releasing to you, and which can be found in the table below. This includes meetings with OZEV officials from election to 24 September 2024 and should supersede original information shared. Please accept my apologies that this information was not included in the Department’s original reply.”
The new data revealed four previously unlisted meetings the Transport Secretary had about the ZEV mandate. Naturally, I’m glad she is engaged in the policy. But, I was curious how they got the original so wrong. So I asked DfT for more details.
A representative told me… After the Press Office received that original FOI, they sent it to officials and the Transport Secretary’s Private Office to investigate. The department wouldn’t confirm if Special Advisors were also involved in the query. I’m not sure what then happened, but after this officials and Haigh’s Private Office determined there had been a ‘counting error’, and an update was duly sent to the FOI team.
DfT has stressed that the initial error was purely down to “human error”, with no external influence on the data handling. While I’ll take their explanation at face value, the timing and nature of the error of course raise some questions about the process.
In any case… ignoring the FOI data, DfT’s swift actions reveal one concrete thing: the Transport Secretary’s team is anxious about her narrative around EVs and automotive.
As some industry sources have commented, Haigh has been fairly quiet on cars - drivers only got a quick mention in her conference speech. And, having gone through her public posts on X, I did find there have only been four posts clearly related to driving since she took office – three of those have been since last Thursday – covering potholes and JLR’s Merseyside investment. Meanwhile, she’s published dozens about other modes of transport, like rail and buses.
When I first contacted DfT’s team, I asked if the Transport Secretary liked cars… and they never got back to me. I brought it up when I spoke to them earlier this week, and a spokesperson chose not to comment when I asked if she did. Quite odd to leave that door open.
Maybe it’s time I put on my tin foil hat, but… during my X stalking, I discovered the first book Haigh read after taking office was ‘Potholes and Pavements’ - where the blurb starts with, “What if we were less reliant on our cars?”. The book is about getting Britain cycling, and that’s fine. I love my bike too. I use public transport a lot as well. But, in the UK there are more than 33 million cars on the roads - with a multi-billion pound industry sweating behind it. Cars are important to a lot of people, and their transition to electric needs our Transport Secretary leading it from the front. This silly FOI saga clearly shows she cares about her narrative on it.
Top stories elsewhere…
🔌 There are now more than 70,000 public charge points in the UK, according to the latest update from ZapMap. This is a 41% year-on-year increase compared to 2023. Read more.
💰 As the Budget approaches this month, it’s noticeable that carmakers are starting to shout more about incentives – even know they are unlikely to be forthcoming. This week alone, both Polestar and Ford have called for incentives. In a long LinkedIn post this week, Lisa Brankin, Chair and MD of Ford, called on the government to “step up its support”. Saying: “The truth is that customer demand for EVs isn’t where it needs to be”. She called for VAT reliefs, the continuation of BiK, and the scrapping of VED for cars worth more than £40k. Read her post.
🚙 This morning, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders published its latest update that showed a record 56,387 EV registrations in September. Read more.
👏 Gridserve has opened its fourth Electric Forecourt this week, the site in Stevenage has 30 bays and is near the Knebworth Estate. Read more.
👀 A paper by the Green Finance Institute has recently been updated. It reveals data from ZapMap between 2022-2024 showing utilisation rates of different speed chargers across that period. The table below suggests ultra-rapid use has increased to 2024, slow charging is consistent but fast (7-22kW) and rapid (25-99kW) have dipped marginally.
😒 Journalist Esther Walker has written a column for iNews where she claims to “regret buying our family an EV”. It’s a rather negative column, and oddly timed. It’s also not mentioned that her husband is Giles Coren. And it’s also not mentioned that, while they got rid of their iPace, they did get a little EV for London. Read the column.
📈 Others may already be aware, but it seems Parliament has created a local area dashboard for EVs and charge points. It looks quite good, though I am a nerd. See here.
🚢 The EU could impose import duties on Chinese made EVs while continuing talks with Beijing – as it seeks to reassure countries who are sceptical about giving China free reign to sell EVs. There is a vote today (Friday) where the Commission has shared a draft regulation with EU countries on the duties it seeks to impose on cars made by BYD, Geely, SAIC, and others that range up to 35%. It will be interesting to see how the UK responds, if at all. Read more.
⚡ Over the Summer EVA England conducted research with 1,700+ EV owners. It’s an in-depth report. Headlines are that they found that 58% of new drivers switched for cost reasons this past year, but there remains a stark divide between those with and without off-street charging. Nine in 10 with off-street parking find EVs cheaper than ICE. But only 5 in 10 without off-street agree. Read more.
⛽ EV charging operator Fastned has been selected by Transport for London to install five initial ultra-rapid charging hubs across London from 2026. There are plans for at least a further 25 sites in total planned in future years. Read more.
🙌 Uber has launched a strategic partnership with ENSO to roll out its energy-efficient and low-emission EV tyres across the UK and USA. The partnership is designed to support the tyre technology company to grow internationally. ENSO is a former Earthshot Prize finalist. Read more.
🏭 Jaguar Land Rover has said it will spend half a billion pounds to upgrade a Merseyside factory to build hybrid cars and prepare for EV production. Read more.
🚌 FirstGroup Energy, the dedicated energy investment arm of the transport operator, is investing £1 million in KleanDrive, which converts heavy vehicles electric. Read more.
🎫 We’ve just had conference season. I couldn’t attend Labour’s Party Conference, but here are my fast takeaways from reviewing the speeches. There was strong support for UK manufacturing, with Business Sec Jonathan Reynolds emphasising the need to attract investment in industry. Green job creation was also key theme, with Energy Sec Ed Miliband highlighting the ‘jobs bonus’ that will come via GB Energy - maybe something for the EV sector to tap into more here. However, there was little direct mention of EVs, with not even Transport Secretary Louise Haigh mentioning them. She focused more on public transport reform. More details on EV support may arrive at the Budget by Chancellor Reeves, but I’m currently sceptical. Her speech here.
🎭 While we’re on politics… Here is some Select Committee insight from friend Giles Winn’s excellent ScreenPower newsletter (which is all about where the screen industries meet with Westminster). He writes…“While the Chairs are now in place, it sounds like the Committees may not be fully operational until mid-November - after the new Conservative leader has been appointed. The talk is, that the new leader will need to appoint their Shadow Cabinet and Shadow Junior Ministers in order to then know who’s left to fill committee positions.” For those who missed it, a couple of weeks before his election as Chair of the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, I spoke to Labour’s Bill Esterson MP about his priorities for the role. You can read it here.
🔋 I missed this at the time, but Geotab analysed the battery health of approximately 5,000 EV’s representing 1.5 million days of data. What they found was the average battery health has improved by 22% over the past five years (1.8% degradation in 2024 versus 2.3% in 2019). The best-performing EV models on sale today have battery degradation rates of just 1.0% annually and it’s expected this number will only come down as battery technology improves. Great work! Read more.
🚗 Fully Charged Live is back in Farnborough next weekend. I sadly can’t make it but you can get tickets here.
Finally… I’m aware this newsletter has been irregular of late, and I apologise for that. As many readers will be aware, I’m undergoing tricky treatment. Though, good news, I’ve got plans in motion to bring back a weekly edition, as well as more regular features in the works. Thanks for your continued support!
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