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

In today’s paid member edition… We are yet to see details on the government’s much-welcomed EV gully scheme. But I have learned it’s only optional, which could mean more local inequality, not less. Story below…

Elsewhere… Heavy charging cables could exclude a million people, carmakers fret over the grant, and Fastned opens up a new frontier in British public charging.

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£25m gully fund coming in August, but councils can just ignore it

Headline: The Department for Transport has confirmed to me that the take-up of its new £25 million cable gully scheme won’t be forced on councils, meaning we could end up with more EV charging inequality between local areas. This comes as authorities wait to receive details about how they can access funding, which is expected to be ready at some point in August.

Background: The £25m gully scheme - known officially in Whitehall as the ‘EV Pavement Channels Grant’ - was annouced by the government more than two weeks ago. At the time, it was branded ‘pioneering’ by DfT. In a press release, the Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, commented, “We are making it easier and cheaper to own an electric vehicle. We know access to charging is a barrier for people thinking of making the switch, so we are tackling that head on so that everyone - whether or not they have a driveway - can access the benefits of going electric.” See here.

However… Despite this scheme being extremely welcome news, especially for a product which is so simple yet potentially very effective for households without driveways, it turns out the money won’t be forced on councils. Aka, they will be left with the choice of whether to take it up or not.

The Fast Charge

Scoop: DfT gully scheme won’t be forced on…

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