Only 100 renters claim EV charger grants each month - one year after scheme launched
The latest news from the world of EVs
Hello, I’m Tom Riley and welcome back to The Fast Charge, a British EV newsletter.
Top story in today’s edition… recent government figures suggest the grant scheme for EV drivers living in flats and renting is seemingly not hitting the mark. Meanwhile… Shell publishes its annual driver survey, the Telegraph splashes on heavy EVs, and Britishvolt is back in the news – after its Aussie owner was raided.
Elsewhere below… I’ve included an important parish notice about the next steps for this newsletter. Plus, pre-warning that in next week’s edition I’ll be focussing largely on the UK’s rapid charging network (more details below).
As ever, if you have any thoughts or comments, please do get in touch. My contact details are here or simply reply to this email.
One year on: is the new charge point grant working?
Background: From April last year, the government’s grant for those installing home chargers at bungalows, detached, semi-detached, or terraced houses ended. The scheme launched in 2014 and over eight years funded around 340,000 chargers at people’s homes to the tune of £140 million. Last year, the scheme was replaced so it instead would “accelerate the uptake of electric chargepoints for people living in flats and rental accommodation”. Like before, the new grant provides EV drivers up to 75% funding (or £350) for the upfront costs of installing smart home chargers.
However… One year on from the refreshed scheme launching and it seems to be dwindling. New figures released this month by the Department for Transport suggest that, in the first 12 months the new grant has been available, it’s only funded 2,347 sockets. More worryingly, out of those, only 1,564 of those applications came directly from flat owners or renters – the rest were landlords and those installing chargers in residential car parks.
Heading south… The data speaks for itself. When you look at the per-month grant installations for flat owners and renters, the numbers appear to be trending downwards from a peak in July 2022. When you look at the full scheme, the total number of installations seems to also be stalling.
Still early? Arguably, many of those jumping into EVs are still largely people with a driveway. However, given more than 250,000 EVs were registered last year alone, I really doubt only 1,500 of those did not own a driveway. In Shell’s recent EV driver survey (more details below) they found 44% claim not to have a home charger - perhaps illustrating the potential gap.
Likewise… If you’re sat there thinking ‘well, Riley, it’s probably landlords that will most likely do this not renters’…. I agree… but the data for them is no better. Only 213 funded sockets were installed by landlords over the past 12 months. Meanwhile, at the last count, there were 2.74 million landlords registered in the UK.
In total… Only £1.9 million in grants has been claimed in a year. At this rate, this new scheme won’t even touch the sides of what the previous one delivered. Under the old scheme, grants were being used to fund on average 42,000 + home chargers per year – which means the current scheme is delivering 18 times less impact.
Next steps… The intention of the government to support people renting or without driveways with grants is the right thing to do. However, it strikes me, in the one year the grant is still open, this scheme requires desperately refreshed marketing to tenants, or perhaps stronger instructions to landlords. Otherwise, you might as well scrap the whole thing and perhaps throw the cost savings at equalising VAT on public (20%) versus private (5%) chargers.
Latest EV news…
NOT GOOD: Britishvolt has been out of the headlines for a few months, but now is right back in them – as the new owners were raided by Australian police last week for suspected tax fraud. What this means for Scale Facilitation – who bought Britishvolt in February – is unknown yet though this doesn’t bode well for the company which is looking to raise capital – as it does not even fully own the land yet. Read more (paywall).
REALLY, NOT GOOD: Speaking of money concerns, sadly more bad news from the UK’s battery sector as Cornish lithium, who are hoping to extract minerals from hard rock and hot brines, is looking for £10 million – otherwise it may go bust. The company’s chair, Ian Cockerill, has slammed the government for not supporting the industry. Read more (paywall).
SUPPLY WORRY: Elsewhere, around the world lithium producers have warned that they are worried mine permits, staffing, and inflation may hinder supply abilities as the world goes electric. Read more.
MANIFESTO ASK: The Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders has today called for a new industrial strategy, made up of five pledge, that will bolster the UK’s automotive sector. According to SMMT, done properly, this could deliver a ‘£106 billion prize’. The news was made at their international summit today. Read more.
HEAVY TOLL: The Daily Telegraph has published an analysis, led by the University of Leeds, which has suggested the average EV more than doubles wear on road surfaces – which in turn increases potholes. Read it here (paywall). The story also makes the Telegraph’s front page. The debate about the weight of EVs has ripped through the media, with the story about car parks falling down even appearing on Have I Got News For You a few weeks ago. Comedian Paul Merton’s response is the best I’ve seen on this topic so far… “Who Gives a ****”. See video.
PLATFORM HELP: Aston Martin announced yesterday that it has ‘hit the accelerator’ on building performance EVs. They are planning to drive this forward via a new platform sharing agreement with Lucid Group – which has already developed a premium EV from scratch. Read more.
BIG DATA: Shell Recharge last week published a survey of 25,000 EV drivers across Europe. The data suggested positively that only 14% were now worried about doing longer journeys. Other insights included that… 47% of respondents want a single way to charge, rather than through various apps… 66% are keen on an EV-specific energy tariffs… and 49% choose where to shop and travel based on the availability of chargers. Lots more here.
JET FUEL: Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport, has turned off 25 of its Pod Point chargers located in short-stay car parks. According to Pod Point, Heathrow didn’t renew their contract and neither they nor Heathrow have explained why. However, on Twitter, one person with experience in this area suggested it may have been that a warranty agreement ended and that both businesses have ended up in a stalemate of who services them. Full story in Autocar.
NEW CAMPAIGN: Congrats to She’s Electric which went public last week. It’s a fresh initiative to offer women a way to experience and learn about the world of EVs. See this LinkedIn post with more detail about it here by motoring journo Erin Baker.
GOING DOWN: EV charging company Mina has published a new analysis that suggests prices for charging a car and van is going down. The drop was reportedly one penny from April to May. Read more.
GOING LOWER: In a bigger drop, the AA published a different analysis revealing that the cost for slower on-street kerbside charging has also gone down – with off-peak costs going down more than 10%, and peak rates have reduced sizeably from 72p to 53p. Read more.
NEW MONEY: Bristol has received £7 million to grow its public charging network in the city. The money is from the LEVI scheme. Read more.
FAST CHARGE: Speaking of new funding for infrastructure, in 2020 the Rapid Charging Fund was announced. It’s a scheme that is backed with £950 million to help install at least 6,000 high-power devices on the UK’s motorway network by 2035… Some years later, the fund is yet to launch, though its importance is higher than ever before, as the government looks set to fall behind its targets, and is facing the prospect of huge grid challenges. In next week’s edition, I’m going to be focussing on the UK’s rapid charging network, the future of the market, plus insights from several leading industry voices. Interested to comment? Drop me a line.
HIGH INTEREST: A new survey by Hive (British Gas) has revealed 39% are keen to install a home charger on their driveway, despite only 4.5% owning one yet. Read more.
NEW POLL: Speaking of polls, in a fresh one by tyre people Bridgestone, they found that 40% are keen to buy an EV by 2028 – this is up by 11% compared to the same question in 2022. Read more.
LONG DRIVE: Finally, if you’re not aware of the annual EV rally, it runs this weekend from London all the way to Paris via Brighton. Bon voyage to those taking part. Learn more.
Parish notice: Next steps for The Fast Charge…
The first edition of this newsletter was published on 5 January 2020. It went out to only one recipient and was read 30 times – which were all me. More than two and half years later, today marks the 150th edition of The Fast Charge, and each month thousands of people are tuning in for the latest EV news from the UK.
However, I’ve reached a moment with this newsletter where it’s double or quits… and I’ve decided to double down. And I now have an ambitious plan in place to deliver this. But… it will mean investing real money pounds to deliver the content I envisage.
One way I plan to do this is to roll out a paid subscription scheme. It will likely mean, every other week from August time, the ‘latest EV news’ section of this email will be behind a paywall. Prices are yet to be determined, though it will be low (and hopefully many of you can expense it). Likewise, I plan to have a scheme that will mean you won’t pay anything if you share/refer people regularly.
Obviously, nobody wants more subscriptions in their lives, though there are few ways I can guarantee you another 150 editions without them. More details to come on specific prices, but thank you for your continued support.
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