Whitehall plan to speed up grid disappoints EV leaders

The latest news from Britain's EV sector

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

It’s quite a nerdy top story in today’s edition… I reveal details of the government’s proposed action plan to address slow EV charger connections - which has been criticised by industry leaders.

Elsewhere… Whitehall releases new money to 44 councils, EV start-up Lunaz hits the rocks, and making EV cars will be cheaper than making engines (reports the Mail).

As ever, if you have any thoughts or feedback, do get in touch via my contact details below or reply to this email.

OZEV’s plan to unlock EV grid issues disappoints

Background (i): At the end of last year, the government launched its ‘Plan for Drivers’. And within this plan included the promise that Whitehall would review the grid connections process for EV chargepoints, with the “aim to accelerate it.” For those unaware, installing EV chargers is easy, the red tape and bureaucracy on the other hand of getting them live is extremely difficult – leading to many networks being unable to deploy at pace.

Background (ii): The problem of getting projects connected to our electricity grid isn’t just isolated to EVs – it’s also impacted numerous renewable energy deployments, with some getting quoted more than a decade to get hooked up. For that reason, last year the government published a ‘Connections Action Plan’ to fire 1,000 volts up the all those involved. Since then, the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles has been leading a government plan to improve the grid process for EV chargers.

Scoop: I have seen a copy of OZEV’s draft plan which includes a table of 15 proposed policy actions, including details of the issue, next steps, and dates of introduction. The action plan, which was shared in February with energy networks and charge point operators, has not been met favourably by industry leaders who have seen it. In fact, the plan was met so badly that Whitehall officials have since conducted several workshops to improve.

In detail: OZEV’s review is broken down into seven ‘action areas’. Namely: Energising charge points; Increasing accessibility and streamlining of connection offers; Standing chargers; Providing a forward look of investment to Distribution Network Operators (DNO); Wayleaves; Land rights; and continued review and collaboration.

*FYI, a DNO is essentially a company that manages the electricity network in a particular area.

Reaction: From reading the 15 specific policy actions that sit under those strands, it’s quite clear to even a layperson that not all of them are real ‘actions’. As one industry source told me, “As a sector we expressed concerns”. While another joked, “There’s certainly lots of commitments to ‘think about it’”. Despite this, I’m told officials in Downing Street were quite happy with how the plan had come out.

The actions… I am not sharing the document, but here’s a very high-level summary of the draft content and timings. Further below, I’ve focussed on three policies:

1. Energisation of EV chargers

   • DNOs to provide updates on energisation progress – aiming to reduce delays in making infrastructure operational. (Q2 2024)

2. Increased accessibility and streamlining of the connection offer process

   • DNOs to hold surgeries for charger point operators (CPOs) and Local Authorities (LAs) to improve understanding and collaboration. (Q2 2024)

   • DNOs to create a one-stop-shop checklist for connection application information. (Q3 2024)

   • DNOs to provide feedback to CPOs on alternative options for high-cost connection offers. (Q3 2024)

   • CPOs and LAs to ensure they do not duplicate connection applications. (Q1 2024)

3. Standing charges

   • Include standing charges in grid connection offers to clarify costs for CPOs.(Q3 2024)

4. Providing a forward look on investment to DNOs

   • LAs and CPOs to inform DNOs of planned investments for the next 24 months. (Q2 2024)

   • Government to remind LAs to inform DNOs about LEVI project investments. (Timing TBC)

5. Wayleaves

   • Government to publish its response to call for evidence on land rights and consents. (Spring 2024)

   • Set up a working group to review and propose changes to land purchase and wayleave processes. (Q4 2024)

   • Explore acceptance of access agreements instead of wayleaves by DNOs and CPOs. (Ongoing)

   • Standardise documents for wayleaves across DNOs. (Timing TBC)

   • Produce best practice guidance for the wayleaves process. (Q2 2024)

6. Land rights

   • Call for legislative changes to facilitate the installation of large overhead lines for projects. (Timing TBC)

7. Continued reviews and collaboration

   • Commit to bi-annual review dates and progress indicators for all parties involved. (Q1 2024)

Policy one… One of the biggest challenges is getting a charger ‘energised’ – as long delays after a device is in the ground is bad for drivers, bad for networks, and for site landlords. The government’s solution: “Once a connection offer has been accepted and a timeframe for energisation is provided by the DNO. DNOs to give milestone updates on progress toward energisation.”. I’m no expert, but that doesn’t seem very detailed to me? Though OZEV believes this will increase transparency and “promote better collaboration and foster strong working relationships.”

Policy two… To avoid delays when EV charging companies are deploying across regional boundaries, one way the government believes things will be speeded up is if those operators (and local authorities) hold “surgeries” with energy networks. This will according to them “create deeper ways of working”. Yeah bros, let’s all just make energy not war. One network I spoke to scorned “more conversations”.

Policy three… One of the few glimmers of hope in the plan seems to be around ‘wayleaves’ – which are legal agreements that grant networks the right to install and maintain chargers on private land. Most wayleave agreements have not been updated for decades, meaning often it can take networks significant chunks of time to negotiate with landowners who are still working to a previous era. Government has proposed making this easier. One route will be when they publish next steps to a recent consultation on land rights and consents – due “Spring 2024”. They have also suggested setting up a new ‘working group’ to further work through – hopefully doesn’t mean kicking it down the road.

Final thoughts… Networks believe OZEV’s first draft - aka, the policies above - “missed the mark” and paid “lip service” to solving the problems that exist. However, since this report, I’m told there have been workshops in Whitehall, including with National Grid and organisations like the Energy Networks Association, which have been much more positive. One operator said: “I expect that the next version will actually be quite good.” I guess we’ll have to wait for OZEV to publish!

Govt response… After being contacted, a spokesperson for the Department for Transport said they wouldn’t comment on the draft, though noted: “This Government has invested more than £2 billion on the switch to electric, which has supported putting over a million electric vehicles on our roads and a 47% increase in the number of chargepoints since this time last year. We continue to actively engage with stakeholders to enable operators to install more chargers faster across the country, helping to support motorists and encourage growth.”

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Top EV news…

💰 Big news from yesterday is that the Department for Transport is providing 44 more councils with over £185m of Local EV Infrastructure funding. This is great news as some had been worried whether the government would just sit on the money, instead now we should see regions really get going with tenders. Read more.

🔌 As part of the announcement yesterday, the government has also extended the charge point grant to include those households without driveways but with adequate street parking to be able to claim. This means cross-pavement cable solutions are now eligible.

⚡ This week I joined a Transport & Environment webinar where Lizzie Culwick, Deputy Head of OZEV attended. The webinar was about barriers to the next phase of EV adoption to the ‘early majority’ - which Lizzie said OZEV was ‘pivoting’ to. Two policies she noted would help were LEVI funding - see above - and the £1bn Rapid Charging Fund. At the moment, the latter is only available for motorways, leaving regions like Cornwall potentially unable to benefit. I asked Lizzie if they’d miss out? In response, she noted: “Difficult question at the moment but we are looking at the responses” noting the recent consultation on extending the scheme to A roads.

🚗 It seems the American carmaker Fisker could be on the brink of bankruptcy. The company launched its ‘Ocean’ SUV in the UK at the end of last year. I test drove it and was very impressed by all the features. Interestingly, I got a feeling something was up when, having not heard from them since my test in November, between 8 and 19 February I got seven marketing emails from them. Then they stopped. Super weird, and now perhaps makes a bit more sense. Read more.

🚍 Speaking of bankruptcies, the commercial arm of Lunaz, the EV start-up, has entered administration. The commercial arm of the classic car electrification company had developed a prototype electric bin lorry, though it struggled to secure funding. Lunaz has some famous backers, including David Beckham. Comedian Jack Whitehall also did some promo stuff there recently. Likewise, only in December Labour Leader Sir Kier Starmer delivered a keynote speech there. Read more.

🚐 And a final one bust company – sorry I know these updates are depressing – but we finally learned last week about the scale of Arrival’s debts. All in, the van start-up went bust owing up to £200m to more than 400 organisations. I tweeted a list of who. Or read more (paywall).

⛽ I missed this while away gallivanting around Mallorca, but good initiative by rapid network Fastned who are offering petrol station owners up to £250k to transition to EV. Read more.

🤝 Honda and Nissan have announced that they will work together on developing EV technology after signing a memorandum of understanding on last Friday. Read more.

🏁 The Duke of Richmond and Gordon, who founded the Goodwood Festival of Speed, has come out criticising the government for its lack of support for the EV transition. Read more.

📊 In a survey of 66 car dealers, more than half said they were much less interested to purchase EV stock. However, Auto Trader has suggested an 81.5% surge in interest for used EVs to February. Read more.

👮 Quelle surprise. The Jaguar i-Pace owner who had to be ‘rammed’ off the road due to his runaway EV has, after an investigation, been arrested on suspicion of “dangerous driving” and “causing a public nuisance”. Read more.

🚛 bp pulse has acquired the freehold of the massive Ashford truck stop in Kent. bp is planning to transform the huge site into an EV charging hub for lorries. Read more.

🧾 A little tip I got sent on Vehicle Excise Duty for owners (hopefully it works/is helpful). With the rules changing from April next year, meaning EV owners will have to pay road tax, you should renew your tax this month so that by the time it comes for renewal in March 2025, you’ll get another free year before having to pay it.

🧙 Finally, in a bit of positive news, “electric cars will be CHEAPER to make than petrols by 2027”, so says a headline by… MailOnline. The story is based on a report by research group Gartner. See it here. I also took great joy in reading the 500 comments under this story, including one person who wrote “EV's are for Scalextric obsessed Harry Potter types”. So, until next week my fellow wizard racers!

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