FEATURES by
JANE DEVLIN
Energy Strategy Manager at East Hampshire District Council
Opportunities and Challenges of Delivering Electric Vehicle Charging Points And if you are part of the supply chain with an eye on a piece of the action, how can you succeed? There is good news: the market is emerging, and it could grow faster than you think.
The people you see driving around in EVs in 2018 are the innovators - 2.5% of consumers who go for something because it is new. Next come the 16% of people who see an advantage, known as early adopters. Most of us fall into the next 68% of early and late majority. The last people to switch are laggards, and may form a long tail in the market, and so we will still see the odd internal combustion engine (ICE) well into the 2050s.
public-facing charge points needed to facilitate charging for all those cars. Each retailer does a good job of promoting their own network, but it is disjointed, and I have yet to see anyone providing a whole-market picture.
How many charge-points will be needed? Where will the public facing ones be? And will the rapid (50kW) chargers be everywhere, or just The Business, Energy and Industrial on through-route forecourt-type Strategy locations? And committee if we are going Electric vehicles — Consumer uptake 2018–2040 asserts that the to decarbonise government’s transport, 2018 2028 2038 deeds do not how much match the renewable ambitions of electricity will its words. The be needed? Join when committee’s chair, Join when there is a there is productivity Rachel Reeves MP, Range anxiety plenty of help gain said (BBC Website, is the biggest and support October 2018) barrier to EV Join when the government’s up-take. But, Join only they perceive targets gave “little if there were when they a benefit have to clarity or incentive a reliable to industry or the public-facing Join when consumer to invest charger it is new in electric cars.” infrastructure, with chargers If zero really does for users in the mean zero, how big right locations is the challenge? and recharge 2040: No new ICE There are about times that 43,000 EVs out of match users 32 million vehicles need, that on the road in 2018, but in 2040 the Model the curve needed to meet barrier would disappear. numbers will likely be reversed. the ‘no new petrol or diesel cars from 2040’, allowing for the average Most EV drivers will charge their cars My first question is how the uptake number of years we keep our cars at home, following daily, familiar of EVs will progress, since there is (about 4 years), and the average age journeys with a full charge. The pressure to switch to EVs in less when cars are scrapped (between 16 public-facing infrastructure for most than two decades? Are there any and 20 years after first registration), people means the freedom to relax similar emerging markets to provide and the halfway point is around when the routine changes. evidence? 2033. Then estimate the number of
THE EMA MAGAZINE • ISSUE NOVEMBER—DECEMBER 2018
Imagine your next car is electric. Are you confident that the market will provide the charge-point infrastructure you can rely on?
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