THE SPECTRUM
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Expanding usage of Electric Vehicles in London through a stateled mission innovation approach by
Patrick Geddis, Maxime Sommerfeld Antoniou, Irina Tabacaru, Aimel Waseem
The recent project to build the Silvertown four-lane tunnel in East London has raised some pressing concerns about the consistency of the government’s actions in tackling air pollution in Greater London. The persistently high levels of air pollution in London and slow deployment of Electric Vehicles (EVs) suggest that the current policies are failing to address these urgent issues. This proposal seeks to fill the existing policy gap by providing a set of recommendations to reinforce and expand the infrastructure for electric vehicles in London, in order to reduce the emissions generated from transport, using Mazzucatto’s Mission Economy theoretical framework as the primary intervention. The paper presents the context and current status quo in London within section 1. It also identifies the policy failures and loopholes alongside challenges faced in implementation of EVs in London under the existing status-quo. Section 2 then introduces the theoretical framework of the policy proposal as the intervention followed by the policy proposal in section 3. Section 4 outlines potential limitations and risks associated with our policy proposal and suggests multiple risk mitigation methods. Section 1: Air pollution and curent electric vehicles poli-
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cies in the United Kingdom (UK) and London This section outlines the current UK-wide and London policies aimed at reducing pollution from transport. The measures introduced by the British government to broaden the use of electric cars aim (i) to ban the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030 (Step 1) and (ii) to have all new vehicles “be fully zero emission at the tailpipe from 2035” (Step 2). To achieve this, the government has allocated £1.8 billion worth of investment into EV infrastructures and grants, alongside an additional £500 million to support industrial jobs to promote the green transition. Examples of EV infrastructures supported by the government include the setup of accessible charge points throughout the UK, investments into research and development to promote green technologies, and public support of British car manufacturing bases in the West Midlands, North East and North Wales that are expanding their EV productions.1 Moreover, the British government has also introduced policies to incentivise individuals to switch to clean vehicles. These notably include discounts of up to £2500 on newly bought low-emission vehicles.
