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BRIEFING PAPER

Number CBP07480, 20 February 2018

Electric vehicles and infrastructure

By Louise Butcher Suzanna Hinson, David Hirst

Inside: 1. Overview: electric vehicles &

infrastructure 2. Government measures to

encourage uptake 3. Additional Electricity Demand 4. Emissions comparison: EVs

and conventional vehicles

Number CBP07480, 20 February 2018 2

Contents Summary 3

1. Overview: electric vehicles & infrastructure 4

2. Government measures to encourage uptake 8 2.1 General policy 8

Labour Government, 2009-10 8 Conservative-led governments, 2010- 9 Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill 2017-19 11

2.2 Vehicle grants 12 Plug-in car and van grants 12 Low emission buses 12 Ultra low emission taxis 13 Motorcycles and scooters 14 R&D funding 14

2.3 Infrastructure grants 15 Homecharge 15 ‘Go Ultra Low’ cities 16 Public sector/local authorities 17 Workplace charging 18 Train station grant 18

3. Additional Electricity Demand 20 3.1 Responses to demand concerns 20 3.2 The Capacity Market 21 3.3 Balancing the Grid 21

Vehicle to Grid (V2G) technology 22

4. Emissions comparison: EVs and conventional vehicles 23 4.1 Fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions 23 4.2 Vehicle production and greenhouse gas emissions 24

Other impacts of EV production 25

Contributing Authors: Louise Butcher, Transport policy

Cover page image copyright: Department for Transport [cropped]

3 Electric vehicles and infrastructure

Summary This paper explains what electric vehicles are and how successive governments have planned for infrastructure and provided vehicle grants and incentives to encourage and accommodate their growth. It also sets out how the electricity grid is preparing to accommodate any increased demand from EV charging and looks at comparative emissions from EVs and conventional vehicles.

Since 2009 UK governments of all parties have sought to provide a framework in which electric vehicles, or ‘ultra low emission vehicles’ can grow. The decarbonisation of both private cars and goods and passenger carrying vehicles is seen as critical to helping the UK achieve its climate change obligations and to improving air quality, particularly in cities such as London.

The present Government believes that infrastructure is best planned and delivered locally by public authorities, businesses and individuals and provides various grants for those purposes. It makes available separate vehicle grants for private cars, taxis and buses. It also delivers locally-focused packages of funding in partnership with the motor industry as part of the ‘Go Ultra Low’ cities scheme.

It is currently legislating, in the Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill, for powers to allow the Government to regulate the EV industry if necessary in future years, improve the consumer experience of charging infrastructure, ensure provision at key strategic locations like Motorway Service Areas (MSAs), and require that charge points have ‘smart’ capability.

Though concerns have been raised about the extra demand EVs will add to the electricity grid, the system operator National Grid have said many predictions are exaggerated. EVs have lower emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants over their lifetime compared with conventional vehicles. Although EVs generally have higher manufacturing emissions than conventional vehicles, they have lower emissions from use, meaning that generally they have lower emissions than the equivalent conventional fuel vehicles.

Zap Map shows all the current charging points across the UK. It can be filtered by postcode or other location.

Commons Library briefings on other road transport, energy and environmental issues can be found on the Parliament website.

Number CBP07480, 20 February 2018 4

1. Overview: electric vehicles & infrastructure

Electric vehicles (EVs, sometimes referred to as Ultra Low Emission vehicles or ULEVs) run on electricity some or all of the time. There are several different types, as described by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) as follows:1

What is an Electric Vehicle?

Electric vehicles use electric motors to drive their wheels. They derive some or all of their power from large, rechargeable batteries. The distance an EV can drive between recharges is known as its range. Different categories of EV include:

• All-electric EVs, where the battery is the only power source. Most current (non-luxury) models have a quoted range of 80-120 miles (130-190 km). In practice, range varies according to driving style, terrain and the use of auxiliary equipment such as heating/air conditioning.

• Plug-in Hybrids (PHEVs) can switch between running on electricity or fossil fuels. They typically have a smaller battery, and therefore a lower battery powered range of between 10-40 miles (15-60 km). However their maximum range is equivalent to a petrol car. Both plug-in hybrid and all-electric EVs are recharged by lugging them in to the electricity grid (see image).

• Hybrids (HEVs) which do not plug in, such as the Toyota Prius, have a much smaller battery which is recharged while driving. HEVs can drive in electric mode for a few miles.

• Fuel Cell Vehicles generate their own electricity on-board from a fuel such as hydrogen, and do not need to plug in to the electricity grid to recharge. Re-fuelling is similar to a petrol car.

ULEVs represent a tiny percentage of the overall vehicle fleet. The Government is keen to highlight the growth rate, rather than the absolute numbers on the roads, as it sees this as more encouraging. The most recent data, published in December 2017, shows the overall EV contribution to licensed vehicles and that most of these are accounted for by non-plug in hybrids:2

1 POST, Electric vehicles (POSTnote 365), 1 October 2010, p1 2 DfT, Vehicle Licensing Statistics: Quarter 3 (Jul – Sept) 2017, 14 December 2017,

figures 3 and 4

5 Electric vehicles and infrastructure

The growth rate is more dramatic and shows the sharp acceleration since 2014:3

In a speech in January 2016 the then Roads Minister, Andrew Jones, said that ULEVs had reached a ‘tipping point’.4 ULEV registrations were initially below what the Government was expecting when it published its EV strategy paper in 2011. The central forecasts then were that EVs would make up between roughly one and two per cent of new vehicle registrations by 2015, the figure is now heading towards two per cent (see above).5

Research commissioned by the Government and published in August 2015 found that the sorts of people who tend to buy ULEVs are “middle-aged, male, well-educated, affluent, and live in urban areas

3 Ibid., figure 5 4 DfT, We are reaching the ultra low emission vehicle tipping point, 22 January 2016 5 DfT/OLEV, Making the Connection: The Plug-In Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy, June

2011, fig 1.2, p15

Number CBP07480, 20 February 2018 6

with households containing two or more cars and with the ability to charge at home” and that this socio-demographic profile of ULEV owners in the UK was “not likely to change significantly”.6

Around the world

For some years sales of ULEVs were lower than expected in other parts of the world, with the falling price of gas cited as the main disincentive for switching from petrol and diesel vehicles to electric. For example, in the US only about 400,000 electric cars were sold by the final year of President Obama’s term: less than half of his goal of getting one million plug-in electric vehicles on the roads by 2015.7 In October 2017 the International Energy Agency reported that the number of electric vehicles on the road increased to 2 million in 2016. China was by far the largest electric car market, accounting for more than 40% of the electric cars sold in the world and more than double the amount sold in the US. Norway achieved the most successful deployment of EVs in terms of market share, followed by the Netherlands and Sweden.8 A research study published in December 2017 found that EVs were cheaper to own and run than petrol or diesel cars in the UK, US and Japan.9

Research for the Committee on Climate Change, published in January 2018, stated that:

When it comes to longer journeys between different regions, there are currently around 460 rapid chargers located near major roads. This means that, given the current number of EV drivers, around 55% of long distance travel is already possible without long waits. The research suggests this needs to increase to at least 1170 chargers by 2030 to service the growing number of EVs. This level of charging infrastructure will ensure long queues don’t build up at charging points, and make it possible for 99% of long distance travel to be completed in an EV by 2030 […]

Currently, around 27% of long-distance EV trips require a charge en route but rapid developments in battery range mean this could fall to less than 1% by 2030. The newest type of charger can charge at 350kW, which could give 190 miles of range in as little as 20 minutes. Advancements like these suggest that the UK’s EV revolution could be just around the corner.

In local areas, there are currently 2,700 chargers available to the public. As the number of electric vehicles increases, a total of 27,000 chargers located in public parking spaces will be needed in 2030 to allow drivers to top up. Again, charging will take place while the driver is using local facilities […]

Investment in additional chargers across the country would cost roughly £530m given current charge point costs. There will also be additional costs in connecting the chargers to the electricity grid. The government has recently announced a £400m charging infrastructure fund in partnership with industry, and Highways England has funding to ensure that a charging point is available at least every 20 miles across 95% of the network. As businesses are

6 Brook Lyndhurst for DfT, Uptake of Ultra Low Emission Vehicles in the UK: A Rapid

Evidence Assessment for the Department for Transport, August 2015, executive summary

7 “Electric vehicle sales fall far short of Obama goal”, Reuters, 20 January 2016 8 IEA, Global EV Outlook 2017: Two million and counting,16 October 2017, p5 9 “Electric cars already cheaper to own and run than petrol or diesel – study”, The

Guardian, 1 December 2017

7 Electric vehicles and infrastructure

also likely to be willing to invest in chargers to attract customers, these committed funds should be able to significantly improve the current network and reassure people who might be tempted by an EV.10

10 “Plugging the gap: What next for Britain’s EV public charging network?”, CCC blog,

19 January 2018

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2. Government measures to encourage uptake

2.1 General policy Labour Government, 2009-10 In April 2009 the Labour Government published its ULEV strategy. It said that there were “considerable challenges” that would have to be met “before the scale of deployment of ultra-low carbon vehicles on the UK’s roads can increase dramatically. Key to these is the need to ensure that the initial infrastructure that is required to make ultra-low carbon vehicles viable is in place. This will allow economies of scale to reduce the costs of new technologies”.11

It said that it intended to encourage growth in the ULEV market by “supporting the development of lead cities and regions, bringing together consortia of cities and companies to start the processes of building infrastructure and increasing consumer confidence” and would provide £20 million “seed money” for this purpose.12 It also emphasised that:

Although government has a role in helping support the minimum infrastructure to make the transition to ultra-low carbon vehicles viable, we expect that the private sector, either in the form of electricity suppliers and distributors or other third parties, will ultimately take the lead in infrastructure provision.13

The Labour manifesto for the 2010 General Election promised to “ensure there are 100,000 electric vehicle charging points by the end of the next Parliament”.14 According to separate plans published by the then Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, in May 2009, a quarter of that 100,000 would be in London.15 According to Source London there are currently upwards of 850 charge points across London, with a further 4,500 planned for installation before 2018.16

11 DfT, Ultra Low Carbon Vehicles in the UK, April 2009, p8 12 ibid., p9 13 ibid., p9 14 Labour Party, A Future fair for All: the Labour Party Manifesto 2010, April 2010, p1.8 15 Mayor of London, An Electric Vehicle Delivery Plan for London, May 2009 16 Source London, What is Source London? [accessed 19 February 2018] “Source

London is a London-wide electric vehicle charge point network. The network was started by Boris Johnson and TfL and is key to delivering the Mayor Johnson’s vision of increasing the uptake and usage of electric vehicles in London. The network was taken over by the Bolloré Group in 2014”

Zap Map shows all the current charging points across the UK. It can be filtered by postcode or other location.

9 Electric vehicles and infrastructure

Conservative-led governments, 2010-

Zero emission vehicle target

The Government has long said that it was committed to “ensuring almost every car and van is a zero emission vehicle by 2050”.17 As part of its July 2017 Air Quality Plan the Government announced that “it will end the sale of all new conventional petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040”.18 In January 2018 the Committee on Climate Change said that three-fifths of new cars must be electric by 2030 to meet greenhouse gas targets.19 A study by UBS in 2016 predicted that diesel would “almost disappear” from the global car market within 10 years if competition from cheaper electric cars and tougher stances by regulators come to pass.20

The 2010 Coalition Agreement contained a commitment to “mandate a national recharging network for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles”.21 The Carbon Plan, published in March 2011, reiterated that the Government had “committed to mandating a national recharging network” and that by June 2011 it would “produce a strategy setting out how it will promote the provision of nationwide recharging infrastructure” with the intention of seeing “up to 8,500 charging points installed across the UK by March 2013”.22

The Government’s June 2011 paper said that its approach was “not to mandate ‘a chargepoint on every corner’ – this is not necessary to help the market grow and would be uneconomic”. Rather:

… for plug-in vehicles to appeal to, and be a viable solution for, consumers, we want recharging infrastructure to be targeted, convenient and safe. We want to see the majority of recharging taking place at home, at night, after the peak in electricity demand. Home recharging should be supported by workplace recharging for commuters and fleets, with a targeted amount of public infrastructure where it will be most used, allowing people to make the journeys they want.

[...]

The majority of recharging is likely to take place at home and at work, so an extensive public recharging infrastructure would be underutilised and uneconomic. We want public infrastructure to be targeted at key destinations, where consumers need it, such as supermarkets, retail centres and car parks, with a focused amount of on-street infrastructure, particularly for residents without off-street parking.23

Labour said at the time that this represented a renege on the Coalition’s commitment to a ‘national charging network’.24 However, others,

17 DfT press notice, “UK government pledges bold ambition for electric cars”, 3

December 2015 18 DfT press notice, “Plan for roadside NO2 concentrations published”, 26 July 2017 19 “Most new cars 'must be electric by 2030'”, BBC News, 17 January 2018 20 “Diesel faces global crash as electric cars shine”, Financial Times, 11 December 2016 21 HMG, The Coalition: our programme for government, May 2010, p31 22 HMG, The Carbon Plan, March 2011, para 5.9 23 op cit., Making the Connection: The Plug-In Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy, executive

summary 24 Labour Party press notice, “Ministers must come clean over attempt to bury bad news

on strike day – Woodcock”, 1 July 2011; also reported in: “Coalition scraps national network of charging points for electric cars”, The Independent, 2 July 2011

Number CBP07480, 20 February 2018 10

including manufacturers of electric vehicles, supported the Government’s claim that most charging would be done at home or in the workplace and that the need for public recharging points was therefore limited.25

The Transport Select Committee published a report on ULEV in September 2012. It recommended that the DfT “evaluate the effectiveness of providing public infrastructure as a means of encouraging plug-in vehicle sales”.26 In its response, OLEV reiterated the Government’s view that “publicly accessible infrastructure is only part of the equation” and that “private sector provision of infrastructure and the options for home and workplace charging all have a part to play in providing the confidence that plug-in vehicle buyers need when making purchasing decisions”. Further, it said that:

It will not be possible to completely attribute the influence of publicly accessible chargepoints in a particular area to the uptake of plug-in vehicles. But we will be looking at the available evidence to ensure that our package of measures for supporting the early market for ULEVs remain effective in delivering the desired outcomes cost effectively.27

By way of background, the August 2015 research for the Government on the UK ULEV market commented that public charging was seen to have two overlapping but different roles:

… meeting the needs of existing owners and addressing the concerns of potential future EV owners about buying an EV. Existing EV owners rely mostly on home and workplace charging but consistently report a desire for more extensive – and fast – public charging to enable them to undertake longer journeys. The evidence also suggests that additional public charging infrastructure can help to address the range concerns of potential future EV owners and increase EV uptake. Current public charging provision in the UK is comparable, even favourable in certain respects, to provision in countries with more developed EV markets.28

The Government’s April 2014 strategy paper on ULEVs pledged that by the end of 2014 there would be a rapid chargepoint at every motorway service station and that there would be a network of over 500 rapid chargers across the country by March 2015. It also pledged £32m for charging infrastructure in 2015-20.29 There are more than 11,000 public chargepoints across the UK and in October 2016 the Government said that the UK had Europe’s largest network of rapid chargepoints.30

25 see, e.g. comments by Nissan in “Hammond criticised over car charging points”,

Financial Times, 1 July 2011 26 Transport Committee, Low Carbon Vehicles (fourth report of session 2012-13), HC

239, 20 September 2012, p3 and para 31 27 Government Response to the Committee's Fourth Report of Session 2012–13 (eighth

special report of 2012-13), HC 884, 21 January 2013, p6 28 op cit., Uptake of Ultra Low Emission Vehicles in the UK: A Rapid Evidence

Assessment for the Department for Transport, executive summary 29 OLEV, Investing in ultra low emission vehicles in the UK, 2015 to 2020, April 2014,

p16 30 DfT press notice, “Government gears up for zero emission future with plans for UK

charging infrastructure”, 24 October 2016

11 Electric vehicles and infrastructure

In its September 2016 report on sustainability at the DfT the Environmental Audit Select Committee said that the Government should be clearer about its target for ULEV uptake by 2020 and said that it had “no confidence that the UK will achieve 60% market share by 2030”.31 The same month The Times published analysis showing that drivers faced a “postcode lottery” as regards charging points and that there were “more chargers available in the Orkney Islands than in Blackpool, Grimsby and Hull combined”.32

In October 2017 the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy published its Clean Growth Strategy, which stated that the Government is “spending £1 billion to drive the uptake of ULEVs. If battery prices continue to fall there will be less need for Government subsidies for new vehicles in the future”.33 On infrastructure it said that in addition to workplace and residential charging support, “the Government has also allocated an additional £80 million to support charging infrastructure deployment, alongside £15 million from Highways England to ensure rapid charge points every 20 miles across 95 per cent of England’s Strategic Road Network”.34 It also said that the Government would “set out further detail on a long term strategy for the UK’s transition to zero road vehicle emissions by March 2018”.35

The 2017 Autumn Budget announced further measures to support consumer demand for ultra-low emission vehicles, including:

• the creation of a new £400 million Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund (£200 million Government investment to be matched by private investors);

• regulatory measures to accelerate the deployment of chargepoints; and

• an extra £100m for the Plug-In Car Grant.36

Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill 2017-19 The Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill 2017-19 was introduced in the House of Commons on 18 October 2017. It has p[assed all its Commons stages and is currently in the House of Lords.

The measures in the Bill which relate to EVs are intended to help deliver the aim in the Conservative Manifesto commitment for almost every car and van to be a zero emission vehicle by 2050. Taken together, the proposed powers would allow Government to regulate if necessary in the coming years, to improve the consumer experience of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, to ensure provision at key strategic locations like Motorway Service Areas (MSAs), and to require that charge points have ‘smart’ capability.

31 EAC, Sustainability in the Department for Transport (Third Report of Session 2016–

17), HC 184, 1 September 2016, para 25, p14; the response is available at: Fourth Special Report of Session 2016–17, HC 819, 11 November 2016

32 “Owners of electric cars are struggling to get plugged in”, The Times, 24 September 2016

33 BEIS, Clean Growth Strategy, 12 October 2017, p87 34 Ibid., p87 35 Ibid., p89 36 HMT, Autumn Budget 2017, HC 587, 22 November 2017, para 4.15

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Background to and full details of the measures in the Bill are given in HC Library briefing paper CBP 8118.

2.2 Vehicle grants Plug-in car and van grants The Government is assisting with the cost of buying EVs with its plug-in grants, launched in 2011. Grants are available for:

• 5% of the cost of a car, up to a maximum of either £2,500 or £4,500 depending on the model; and

• 20% of the cost of a van, up to a maximum of £8,00037

There are four categories of low emission vehicles. The grant you can get depends on the category:

The scheme will operate until at least the end of March 2018.38

In October 2016 the Government announced that it would commit an additional £4 million to the Plug-in van grant scheme extending the eligibility to electric trucks above 3.5 tonnes eligible for grants of up to £20,000.39

The August 2015 research for the Government on the UK ULEV market commented that “separating out and accurately quantifying the impact of public incentives is not currently possible, and is always likely to prove challenging”, but that “private and fleet EV owners in the UK indicate the [plug-in car grant] was important in reducing the upfront costs of EVs, and in the case of some fleet owners, the additional benefits they can qualify for has been an active motivation for them to buy an EV”.40

Low emission buses The low emission bus scheme was initially announced in April 2014 and details of the scheme were published in March 2015.41 It is a competition-based scheme, with £30 million made available between

37 The grant structure was reformed in March 2016; see: OLEV/DfT press notice, “Take-

up of plug-in car grant continues to rise”, 13 February 2015; DfT press notice, “New plug-in grant will treble number of greener cars on Britain’s roads”, 17 December 2015; and OLEV, Plug-in car grants: changes to grant level March 2016, 21 December 2015

38 HC WPQ 19787, 17 December 2015 39 DfT press notice, “£4 million boost to help businesses switch vans and trucks to

electric”, 23 October 2016 40 op cit., Uptake of Ultra Low Emission Vehicles in the UK: A Rapid Evidence

Assessment for the Department for Transport, executive summary 41 OLEV/DfT press notice, “Ultra low emission vehicles in the UK: measures to support

use and development, 2015 to 2020”, 29 April 2014

Information on applying for the grants can be found on the Gov.uk website.

13 Electric vehicles and infrastructure

2016 and 2019 for local authorities and operators in England and Wales. The scheme builds on the Green Bus Fund, which ran from 2009 to 2013 and delivered around 1,250 low emission buses in England.42

The scheme aims to increase the uptake of ULEV buses (which will thus reduce the need for fuel subsidy support in the form of Bus Service Operators’ Grant);43 improve local air quality; and attract investment to the UK.44

In November 2016 the Government announced that it would make available a further £150 million for cleaner buses and taxis.45 In August 2017 it announced that local authorities and bus companies in Bristol, York, Brighton, Surrey, Denbighshire and Wiltshire have been awarded funding totalling £11 million under the scheme to help them buy 153 cleaner buses.46 In February 2018 it announced £40 million for 20 local authorities as part of the Clean Bus Technology Fund, to help them retrofit vehicles with technology to reduce tailpipe emissions of nitrogen dioxide.47

The Government has produced a low carbon bus calculator to help bus operators and local authorities calculate the likely benefits on investing in a low carbon emission bus.

Ultra low emission taxis The ultra low emission taxi scheme was initially announced in 2014, though details of the scheme were not published until March 2015.48 The scheme works in two stages and is worth a total of £20 million. OLEV guidance stated:

There will be two distinct phases to this scheme, and two points at which an authority can bid for funding:

Feasibility Phase – funding for up to eight feasibility studies provided by the Energy Saving Trust (EST);

Delivery Phase – funding for vehicles and infrastructure, based on feasibility study recommendations.49

In July 2015 Birmingham; Cambridge; Coventry; Dundee; Nottingham; Oxford; and Sheffield city councils and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority were short-listed for the first stage of funding for feasibility

42 OLEV, Low Emission Bus Scheme: Guidance for participants, March 2015, p4; more

information on the Green Bus Fund can be found in section 3 of HC Library briefing paper SN1522

43 more information on BSOG can be found in section 2 of HC Library briefing paper SN1522

44 ibid., p4 45 DfT press notice, “Government pledges £290 million boost for low emission vehicles”,

29 November 2016 46 DfT press notice, “Cleaner journeys as government commits £11 million to greener

buses”, 28 August 2017 47 DfT press notice, “Government funding boost for bus industry in drive to improve air

quality”, 8 February 2018 48 OLEV/DfT press notice, “Ultra low emission vehicles in the UK: measures to support

use and development, 2015 to 2020”, 29 April 2014 49 OLEV, £20 million ultra low emission vehicle taxi scheme: guidance for participants,

March 2015, p5

Information on applying for the grant can be found on the Gov.uk website

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studies into providing more environmentally-friendly travel opportunities in their area.50

A further £25 million has been set aside specifically for the Greater London area to help taxi drivers cover the cost of upgrading to a greener vehicle. DfT said that this funding was “in addition to £40 million already committed by the Mayor of London to compensate taxi drivers whose vehicles are affected by new tighter age limits to retire the oldest, most polluting taxis”.51

In November 2016 the Government announced that it would make available a further £150 million for cleaner buses and taxis.52 In March 2017 it announced a further £64 million to support two schemes:

• A £50 million Plug-in Taxi Grant programme. This will give taxi drivers up to £7,500 off the price of a new vehicle. Taxi drivers who switch to the new electric cabs could also save around £2,800 in fuel costs a year.

• £14 million of investment will deliver new dedicated chargepoints for electric taxis in 10 council areas.53

Motorcycles and scooters In March 2015 the Government announced that it had set aside up to £7.5 million to boost the uptake for electric two-wheelers and help bikers bridge the cost gap between a zero emission electric motorcycle and conventional petrol versions. The grant could offer up to £1,500 off the purchase price and allow motorcyclists to reduce both their running costs and environmental impact.54

The grant was finally launched in October 2016. It consists of an initial £3.75 million to encourage uptake of zero emission motorcycles and scooters.55

Eligibility guidance is available on the Gov.uk website.

R&D funding In September 2010 the Government awarded £24 million to vehicle manufacturers, suppliers and universities in collaborative projects developing innovative technologies such as hybrids, lightweight materials, engine optimisation and catalyst efficiency.56 The competition was run through the Technology Strategy Board,57 and matched with funding from business to a total of £52 million. Projects included “the development of new engines for plug-in hybrid versions of Nissan, Lotus and Jaguar Land Rover cars, a lightweight electric bin wagon, development of lightweight materials for vehicle weight reduction, and

50 OLEV/DfT press notice, “Boost for 8 cities’ bid for share of £20 million plug-in taxi

prize”, 23 July 2015 51 BIS/OLEV/DfT press notice, “Black taxis go green with £45 million government

investment”, 26 March 2015 52 op cit., “Government pledges £290 million boost for low emission vehicles” 53 DfT press notice, “1,000 jobs created at new £325 million factory for electric taxis”,

22 March 2017 54 DfT press notice, “Government revs up motorcycle market”, 27 March 2015 55 DfT press notice, “£35 million boost for ultra low emission vehicles”, 13 October

2016 56 op cit., Making the Connection: The Plug-In Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy, p25 57 now Innovate UK

15 Electric vehicles and infrastructure

new technologies using thermal energy to improve vehicle performance”.58

In February 2015 the Government announced a further £11 million funding to 50 organisations, “ranging from small businesses to major universities”, working together on 15 research and development projects including:

• the creation of a novel recycled carbon fibre material that will bring lightweight, low cost vehicle chassis structures to the mass market (led by Gordon Murray Design Ltd)

• development of a zero emission electric bus with hydrogen fuel cell range extender at a fraction of the cost of the current generation of hydrogen buses (led by Magtec)

• a prototype zero-emission power and cooling system adapted from a cutting-edge liquid nitrogen powered engine that will dramatically reduce the CO₂ emissions from refrigerated trucks and air-conditioned buses (led by Dearman Engine Company Ltd).59

Separately, TRL is leading a £5 million research project with the Energy Technologies Institute into consumers, vehicles and energy integration to help understand how the UK energy system needs to adapt in order to accommodate and encourage greater adoption of ULEVs.60

In March 2016 the Government announced that 130 car manufacturers, technology companies and research centres across the country would share in a £38.2 million government prize. This included a consortium including Jaguar Land Rover and Nissan which received £1.7 million for ‘light weighting’ technology - applying the science behind F1 cars and space satellites to make passenger cars weigh less and be more fuel efficient. This intention is to unveil working prototypes by 2018.61

In February 2018 the Government announced a £30 million investment in V2G (vehicle-to-grid) technologies to pay for research and design and development, with the aim of exploring and trialling both the technology itself and commercial opportunities.62

2.3 Infrastructure grants Homecharge In February 2013 OLEV launched a £13.5 million grant scheme to subsidise householders wishing to install ULEV charging technology at home.63 This was replaced and updated in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

The homecharge scheme from 13 April 2015 provides that customers who are the registered keeper, lessee or have primary use of an eligible

58 DfT press notice, “Electric dreams move closer to reality”, 16 September 2010 59 OLEV/ DfT press notice, “£43 million for infrastructure and research and development

plug-in vehicle funding”, 26 February 2015 60 TRL blog, “Can the UK electric grid cope with electric vehicles?”, 25 November 2015 61 DfT/OLEV press notice, “£38 million fund will use F1 technology to design greener

cars”, 21 March 2016 62 DfT press notice, “£30 million investment in revolutionary V2G technologies”, 12

February 2018 63 OLEV/DfT press notice, “New funding to encourage plug-in car use”, 25 June 2014

Information on applying for the scheme can be found on the Gov.uk website.

Number CBP07480, 20 February 2018 16

ULEV may receive up to 75% (capped at £700, inc VAT) off the total capital costs of a domestic charge-point and associated installation costs.64

‘Go Ultra Low’ cities ‘Go Ultra Low’ is a jointly funded partnership between Government and several major car manufacturers to “explain the benefits of ultra low emission vehicles to drivers and fleets”.65 The car manufacturers involved are: Audi, BMW, Nissan, Renault, Kia, Hyundai, Toyota and VW.

The competition was announced in 2014 and with up to £35 million available for two to four winning cities. The two key criteria for awards were:

Step-change increase in ULEV uptake - This is the key and most heavily weighted criterion. Cities which demonstrate how they plan to use funding and other levers at their disposal to deliver a step-change in the uptake of ultra-low emission vehicles will be highly favoured. As the most common mode of transport, the primary focus will be on cars, both private and publically owned.

Achieving exemplar status - Cities will need to demonstrate how they will look to become internationally outstanding examples of the adoption of ULEVs in a local area. There are a number of different measures that could be included in a bid and we actively encourage bids which think broadly and innovatively.66

In January 2016 the Government announced four winning bids: London, Milton Keynes, Bristol, and Nottingham and Derby combined. London received almost a third of the funding:

London is awarded £13 million to create ‘Neighbourhoods of the future’ prioritising ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEVs) in several boroughs across the capital

• proposals include over a dozen streets in Hackney going electric with charging infrastructure such as car-charging street lighting, while Harrow will develop a low emission zone offering parking and traffic priority to owners of plug-in vehicles

• Westminster Council already provides free parking for ULEVs and London’s proposal aims to deliver 70,000 ULEVs sold by 2020 and almost quarter of a million by 2025

Milton Keynes will receive £9 million to open a city centre Electric Vehicle Experience Centre — a ‘one stop shop’ providing consumer advice and short-term vehicles loans

• the city also proposes to open up all 20,000 parking bays for free to EVs and co-brand bus lanes as low emission lanes giving plug-in vehicles the same priority at traffic lights as local buses

64 OLEV, Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme guidance for customers: version 2.1, 3

November 2016 65 OLEV, £35m Go Ultra Low City Scheme: Local action - regional, national and global

impact, Guidance for bidders, December 2014, p4 66 ibid., p9

17 Electric vehicles and infrastructure

Bristol get £7 million to offer residents free residential parking for ULEVs, access to 3 carpool lanes in the city, over 80 rapid and fast chargers across the city and a scheme encouraging people to lease a plug-in car for up to 4 weeks to help them better understand the range of benefits that electric vehicles bring

Nottinghamshire and Derby will use £6 million of funding to install 230 chargepoints and offer ULEV owners discount parking and access to over 13 miles of bus lanes along key routes across the city

• the investment will also pay for a new business support programme letting local companies ‘try before they buy’67

An additional £5 million of development funding was awarded at the same time for specific initiatives in Dundee, Oxford, York and the north east regions “to help them play their part in kick-starting a country-wide clean motoring revolution”.68 This will include new commuter charging hubs in Dundee, and solar-canopied park and ride hubs in York.

Public sector/local authorities There is no duty on local authorities to provide electric charging points, it is up to them to decide, based on local priorities, whether to do so.

In 2010 the Labour Government set up the Plugged-In Places (PIP) scheme. This ceased operation in 2013. The scheme was one whereby the Government matched funding for local business and public sector consortia to build their own electric charging points. Two tranches of the scheme were awarded – in February and December 2010 (i.e. the first under the Labour Government, the second under the Coalition).

The first PIPs in February 2010 were London, Milton Keynes and the North East, which were expected to install over 11,000 vehicle recharging points to 2013.69 In December 2010 consortia based in the Midlands; Greater Manchester; the East of England; Scotland and Northern Ireland all bid successfully for the second round of PIP funding. These schemes were expected to provide over 4,000 charging points to 2013.70

PIP ceased operation in 2013. In July of that year OLEV published a study looking at lessons learned from the scheme.71

The successors to PIP are separate installation grants for public sector bodies and local authorities. Two rounds of the grants have been awarded, for 2013-14 and 2014-15.72

• Public sector: the fund is intended to facilitate the increase in workplace charging points on the public sector estate, not to provide general provision of chargepoints for the public. Grant

67 OLEV/DfT press notice, “£40 million to drive green car revolution across UK cities”, 25

January 2016 68 ibid. 69 DfT press notice, “Motorists get up to £5,000 towards cost of an ultra-low carbon car

- Under embargo until 0001 25 February 2010”, 25 February 2010 70 DfT press notice, “Electric car revolution revs up for 2011”, 14 December 2010 71 OLEV, Lessons Learnt from the Plugged-in Places Projects, July 2013 72 lists of successful bidders can be found in: OLEV, Grant offers for plug-in vehicle

chargepoints, 31 July 2013; and Plug-in vehicle infrastructure grants: second round, 30 January 2014

Number CBP07480, 20 February 2018 18

funding is available for up to 75% of the capital expenditure incurred as a result of the purchase and installation of chargepoints, capped at £7,500 per installation.73 A further £5 million was made available from 2015 for another round of funding.74

• Local authorities: the funding available is for 75% of the capital costs of procuring and installing a chargepoint and an associated dedicated parking bay, up to a maximum of £7,500 per installation.75 This is generally called the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme.

In October 2016 the Government announced that a further £2.5 million would be made available to councils who commit to installing chargepoints on streets near homes without private off-street parking.76

In November 2017 the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said that there had been opposition to the installation of EV charge points in some areas after complaints by residents.77 In January 2018 Government ministers announced that they had written to local councils calling on them to “do more to help reduce carbon emissions and tackle air quality after it emerged just 5 councils in the whole of the UK” had have taken advantage of the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme.78

Workplace charging In October 2016 the Government announced its intention to launch a new £7.5 million workplace charging scheme, open to eligible private and public sector workplaces in the UK to support the installation of charging infrastructure for their staff and fleet use.79

The scheme was launched in November 2016. It is a voucher-based scheme that provides support towards the up-front costs of the purchase and installation of electric vehicle charge-points, for eligible businesses, charities and public sector organisations.

Applicants can apply for a grant of £300 for each socket up to a maximum of 20 across all sites.80

Further details can be found on the Gov.uk website.

Train station grant The Government made £9 million of funding available to train operating companies in England to cover a proportion of the costs of obtaining and installing plug-in vehicle charging infrastructure at English train 73 OLEV, Grant Scheme for the installation of plug-in vehicle chargepoints on the UK

Government and wider public sector Estate, version 2.2, August 2013, pp6-7 74 OLEV/DfT press notice, “Second phase of £5 million ultra-low emission vehicles

scheme”, 13 January 2015 75 OLEV, Grants to provide residential on-street and rapid chargepoints for plug-in

vehicles: Guidance for local authorities, Version 2.0, August 2013, p5 76 op cit., “£35 million boost for ultra low emission vehicles” 77 “Electric cars hampered by fear of charge-point clutter”, The Times, 27 November

2017 78 DfT press notice, “Funding for thousands of electric car charge points unused by

councils”, 12 January 2018 79 op cit., “£35 million boost for ultra low emission vehicles” 80 OLEV, Workplace Charging Scheme – Guidance Document for Applicants,

Chargepoint Installers and Manufacturers, Version 1.1, 3 November 2016, p2

19 Electric vehicles and infrastructure

stations. The Government said it would fund 75% of the capital costs of procuring and installing charging infrastructure that meets the technical specification, up to £7,500 per installation.81 Two rounds of the grant have been awarded, for 2013-14 and 2014-15.82

81 OLEV, Grant fund for the installation of plug-in vehicle charging infrastructure at train

stations, Version 2.1, August 2013, p6 82 op cit., Grant offers for plug-in vehicle chargepoints, and Plug-in vehicle infrastructure

grants: second round

Number CBP07480, 20 February 2018 20

3. Additional Electricity Demand Following the Government’s announcement in July 2017 of plans to ban sales of “all new conventional petrol and diesel cars and vans” from 204083, concerns were raised by the media that this policy would require significantly more capacity in the power sector and present challenges for balancing the electricity grid. For example, a Telegraph article84 suggested 10 new power stations would be required.

3.1 Responses to demand concerns Many of the estimates, and media reports, on future energy demand with electric vehicles are based on National Grid’s report on Future Energy Scenarios 2017 (FES).85 These annual reports provide what National Grid describe as “a range of credible futures” in the energy sector which can prompt debate and discussion in the industry. They are not intended to be a forecast of future electricity demand.

National Grid: System operator

National Grid owns the transmission network (the high voltage power infrastructure in England and Wales) and separately manages the transmission network to ensure the grid remains balanced and supply meets demand at all times. More information can be found on the roles of National Grid on their website.

Due to the publicity around the issue, National Grid published a “myth-buster” explaining the range of scenarios and stating that they believed their figures had been misused.86

National Grid said that some media projections had used a more “extreme” scenario which they believed was unlikely to occur in reality. Under the scenario reported in the media, by 2046 National Grid’s analysis estimated that peak demand as a result of EVs charging at that time would be 30 GW. 87 By contrast, the most likely scenario in National Grid’s analysis saw peak demand from electric vehicles alone being around 5 GW, about an 8% increase on today’s peak demand value. 88 This is because National Grid believe the switch to EVs will not be as extreme, and consumer behaviour will change to avoid charging at peak times, therefore resulting in a less significant increase to peak demand.89 It concluded by stating:

The recent government announcement on the ban of new conventional petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040 has resulted in some of National Grids FES numbers being quoted out of context.

83 Op cit., “Plan for roadside NO2 concentrations published” 84 “Diesel and petrol car ban: Plan for 2040 unravels as 10 new power stations needed

to cope with electric revolution”, The Daily Telegraph, 27 July 2017 85 National Grid, Future Energy Scenarios 2017, 18 July 2017 86 National Grid, Our Energy Insights, Electric vehicle announcement and what the

papers say, 8 August 2017 87 Ibid. 88 Ibid. 89 Ibid.

21 Electric vehicles and infrastructure

1. The scenario which best fits the government’s statement is Two Degrees.

2. The additional peak demand from EVs in that scenario is not 30 GW but more likely to be 5 GW.

3. The 30 GW often quoted is from our more extreme, but possible, sensitivity called High EV.

4. In this sensitivity there are no nuclear power stations by 2050 – and certainly not 10 as often quoted.

5. Nuclear power stations would not be the best option for meeting peak demand.90

The extra power claim was also analysed by CarbonBrief (a policy analysis blog) in July 2017. It highlighted analysis by Cambridge Econometrics showing that meeting a ban on petrol and diesel cars would add 10% to UK electricity demand in 2050.91

3.2 The Capacity Market The UK has a ‘Capacity Market’ to ensure that there is always sufficient supply to meet demand and that there are no power cuts.92 It operates as a competitive auction, of which there are two types:

• One auction is held to procure the majority of the UK’s required energy capacity four years in advance of when it may be required (known as a T-4 auction); and

• The second is a transitional auction held one year ahead of delivery to enable demand-side response (large consumers who reduce demand at peak times) to participate (known as a T-1 auction).

Capacity providers bid to offer spare capacity to the grid in times of high demand or short supply. These providers range between large power stations and smaller storage units that can supply power, to industries that can reduce demand if there is a lack of supply.93

Ahead of an auction, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) must decide the amount of capacity needed (i.e. the amount of KW that is required to keep the grid secure).94 The Capacity Market is not just for EVs, it covers all demands for electricity.

3.3 Balancing the Grid National Grid are the Transmission System Operator. They ensure that supply and demand always match on the electricity grid to prevent power cuts or increases in network frequency that could damage electrical equipment. This process is known as ‘balancing’.

90 Ibid., p3 91 Carbon brief, Factcheck: How much power will UK electric vehicles need?, 13 July

2017 92 Established under the Electricity Capacity Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/2043), made

under the Energy Act 2013, and supplemented by the Capacity Market Rules 93 Engie, Understanding the Capacity Market, 2016 94 This will be based on a recommendation from the National Grid, which administers

the auctions

Number CBP07480, 20 February 2018 22

Balancing is an increasing challenge for National Grid due to the changing electricity mix. Previously, generation was predominantly provided by large, centralised power stations. However, electricity in the UK is now supplied by a greater variety of generators, including fossil fuels, nuclear power, and large- and small-scale renewables. In July 2017, the Government and Ofgem, the energy regulator, published a report on upgrading the energy system: it outlined plans for transforming the grid with smart and flexible technologies.95

Vehicle to Grid (V2G) technology Wider proliferation of electric vehicles will continue to add demand to the grid. However, the batteries in the vehicles could become an asset to National Grid, as they have the potential to be used for grid balancing.

The concept, known as ‘Vehicle to Grid’ (V2G), is that when supply is low and demand high, EVs connected to the grid to charge can instead release power back into the grid. Owners of the vehicles can then be paid for this balancing service in a similar way to electricity storage unit operators. In theory, if a vehicle is needed to be charged for a certain time the owner could register that time and this would override the use of the car as a power source.

In July 2017, the Government launched a V2G competition with £20 million of funding to develop the technology.96 As indicated in section 2.2., above, in February 2018 the Government announced a further £30 million investment in V2G.97

95 HMG/Ofgem, Upgrading our energy system, Smart systems and flexibility plan, July

2017 96 DfT press notice, “Innovative vehicle to grid technology to receive £20 million”, 8 July

2017 97 Op cit., “£30 million investment in revolutionary V2G technologies”

For more information on V2G, see Ovo, Vehicle to grid: your electric car as a power station.

23 Electric vehicles and infrastructure

4. Emissions comparison: EVs and conventional vehicles

4.1 Fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions An electric vehicle is only as clean as its power supply. In the UK, power is supplied from a variety of sources:

According to a 2016 report from the House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, the current UK target of 30% of electricity to be generated from renewable sources by 2020 is expected to be exceeded; however the wider target of 15% of all energy to be generated from renewable sources is expected to be missed due to less progress in the heat and transport sectors.98 Increases in EVs will help to decarbonise the transport sector if there is also enough decarbonisation in the power sector so that emissions from electricity production are lower than those of conventional diesel or petrol.

The Government has committed to phasing out coal by 2025, and supports the expansion of nuclear and renewable power sources, both of which are low carbon.99 These and other actions are expected to continue to drive down the carbon intensity of the grid, which has almost halved from 500 gCO2/kWh in 2012 to 286 gCO2/kWh in 2016.100

98 ECC Committee, 2020 renewable heat and transport targets (second report of session

2016-17), HC 173, 6 September 2016, paras 9-14 99 BEIS, Implementing the end of unabated coal by 2025: Government response to

unabated coal closure consultation, 5 January 2018 100 CCC, Meeting Carbon Budgets: Closing the policy gap – 2017 Report to Parliament,

29 June 2017, p41

Coal11%

Gas40%

Nuclear24%

Wind, Wave, Solar PV6%

Other renewables13%

Other generation /

Imports6%

Fuel used in electricity generation, UK, 2016

Source: Digest of UK Energy Statistics 2017, Table 5.3

Number CBP07480, 20 February 2018 24

A June 2017 study for the power company Drax conducted by researchers at Imperial College London and the Open University found that EVs are causing fewer emissions over time due to decarbonisation of the power sector. The report explained that overall EVs produce fewer emissions than vehicles which run on fossil fuels:

Producing the electricity to charge a Tesla Model S back in 2012 would have created 124 g per km driven – the same as a 180 horsepower Range Rover. Nowadays that has halved to 74 g/km in winter and 41 g/km in summer. Smaller cars like the Nissan Leaf and BMW i3 can be charged for less than half the CO2 of the cleanest non-electric car on the market – the Toyota Prius hybrid.101

As such, EVs are not technically ‘zero emission’, but they do have fewer emissions than vehicles with internal combustion engines and they are likely to be able to reduce their emissions further as the power sector decarbonises.

4.2 Vehicle production and greenhouse gas emissions

There are emissions associated with manufacturing all vehicles, including EVs. A number of studies have been conducted in this area. For example, the campaign group Transport & Environment recently produced a model to compare an EV with a diesel vehicle, using data from previously published literature. They argued that the EV had half the carbon footprint of a conventional vehicle over a full lifetime of use, and that improvements to production could reduce emissions further:

The selected battery electric vehicle emits during a full functional life, half the amount of CO2 compared to a conventional reference vehicle. Around 70% of the impact of the electric vehicle originates from the production of the electricity, the remaining 30% of the impact is evenly split among the production of the glider (15%) and the lithium battery (around 15%).

The impact of the battery production is significant and can be reduced by using cleaner electricity sources. When only renewable electricity (wind energy) is used during the production, the impact lowers to 65% of original impact. Recycling has also an important role to play in reducing impacts of battery manufacturing (when a crediting system is used) as it lowers the usage of primary materials.

The production of primary materials is an energy intensive and toxic process, that can be avoided in the future when new batteries use secondary materials obtained from obsolete batteries.

When recycling is combined with the usage of renewable energy the GHG emissions during the manufacturing can be reduced towards 35% of the original impact.102

A 2015 study of lifecycle emissions of EVs published in the journal Energy and Environmental Science concluded that EVs have lower

101 Drax, Electric Insights Quarterly, April-June 2017 102 Dr Maarten Messagie for T&E, Life Cycle Analysis of the Climate Impact of Electric

Vehicles, 26 October 2017, pp8-9

EVs produce fewer air pollutants than conventional vehicles when driven, as they have no exhaust emissions. More information on air pollution is available in HC Library briefing paper CBP 8179.

25 Electric vehicles and infrastructure

emissions than a conventional vehicle on a life-cycle basis.103 Similarly, a 2016 study of lifecycle emissions of EVs and the impact of size and range of a vehicle published in Environmental Research Letters also found that EVs had lower emissions than conventional vehicles.104 This study reported that EVs have higher production emissions. Yet, depending on the energy source used for charging, the EVs could compensate for the higher production impact during use. Moreover, from a GHG perspective, this study found that EVs equipped with smaller battery packs were more competitive than the heavier EVs with larger battery packs.105

Other impacts of EV production Batteries for EVs can require rare elements such as lithium and cobalt, which has raised environmental and ethical issues in countries where these elements are mined.106 In addition, EV batteries can be difficult to recycle due to the multiple components. Government rules on waste batteries mean producers of batteries are responsible for their disposal.107

EV battery longevity varies between manufacturers but warranties are offered for between five and ten years and although capacity will decline over time, the battery will likely continue working beyond the warranty.108 The average age of a vehicle on the road has increased, from 6.8 years in 2003 to 7.8 recorded in 2015.109 This suggests that battery disposal rates are likely to be similar to normal vehicle disposal rates. Some car manufacturers have announced plans for reusing or recycling batteries,110 and in November 2017 the Government announced £40 million as part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge fund for 27 projects to make EV batteries longer lasting and cleaner.111

103 J. B. Dunn et al., “The significance of Li-ion batteries in electric vehicle life-cycle

energy and emissions and recycling's role in its reduction”, Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 8, (2015), pp158–68

104 Linda Ager-Wick Ellingsen et al., “The size and range effect: lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of electric vehicles”, Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 11, (2016), pp1-8

105 Ibid. 106 e.g. “Children as young as seven mining cobalt used in smartphones, says Amnesty”,

The Guardian, 19 January 2016 and “Electric car growth sparks environmental concerns”, Financial Times, 7 July 2017

107 Environment Agency, Waste Batteries: producer responsibility, 26 June 2014 108 EECA Business, Electric vehicle battery life, 11 May 2017 109 SMMT, Average Vehicle Age [accessed 19 February 2018] 110 “Nissan launches British-made home battery to rival Tesla’s Powewall”, The

Guardian, 4 May 2017 111 Innovate UK press notice, “Future electric vehicle batteries: long-lasting, cleaner,

better”, 29 November 2017

BRIEFING PAPER Number CBP07480, 20 February 2018

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