Wales launches ‘EV Charging Action Plan’
The Welsh government has launched a new e-mobility strategy and presented the ‘EV Charging Action Plan’. It envisions infrastructure investments, including the private sector, to install charging points every 20 miles at trunks crisscrossing Wales by 2025.
The new strategy builds on announcements in December 2020 when the Welsh government stated it would ensure that by 2025, all users of electric cars and vans in Wales were confident they could access electric vehicle charging infrastructure when and where they need it.
In today’s update, Wales confirmed to have more than 1,000 public charging points already across and counting one for every six battery electric vehicles. The plans now set out an approach to ensure that charging points continue to grow to meet increasing demand as fossil fuel vehicles are phased out.
However, the government did not state how many charging points this will require, not which private partners it may work with. However, Wales again, had in earlier communications identified the need for between 30,000 and 50,000 fast chargers and 2,000 to 3,500 rapid/ultra-rapid chargers to be installed over the next decade.
Deputy Minister for Climate Change and responsible for transport, Lee Waters, added today, “We need to do more in the next ten years than we’ve done in the last thirty if we’re to reach our NetZero target by 2050. Changing the car dependency culture that has been created in the past and encouraging more people to use public transport will be key, but for those essential car journeys, making the switch to an electric vehicle is another way we can make a difference.”
The statement also pointed to the existing ‘Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle (ULEV) Transformation Fund’. The Welsh government claims it has already provided a kick-start for many EV projects across Wales.
Carmarthenshire Council was awarded a £350,000 grant to develop a rapid charging facility on the A48 in Cross Hands. The multi-point charging facility will serve one of the main tourist routes through Wales. The facility comprises five fast chargers from 50kW to 150kW under a solar canopy with capacity for further expansion and is expected to be operational later this year.
The next round of ULEV funding will open for bids in December 2021. The fund will help local authorities deliver more than 300 publicly accessible fast and rapid charging points across Wales this financial year, so the authorities. There are also plans in place to increase both public and private sector delivery in line with the Welsh Government’s strategy in future years, although details have yet to be laid out.
Nationally, Great Britain will ban the sales of vehicles running on fossil fuels by 2030, five years earlier than initial proposals suggested. The measure is part of a nationwide ten-point plan for a “green industrial revolution”.
Wales also operates its own ‘Net Zero Wales’ plan with three carbon budgets, the second of which runs from 2021 to 2025.
0 Comments