Electric cars were developed in order to reduce emissions from fuel-powered vehicles. While the trend seems to indicate a shift to electric cars, traditional car owners are still skeptical about buying EVs because of two major factors.
The first one is the price of the electric car, which is significantly more expensive than a fuel-powered vehicle. It is simple economies of scale. While buying an EV may be expensive at first but in the long-run, it would produce more savings for the owner because he saves a whole lot in fuel expense.
The second factor is the possible significant cost that prospective EV buyers may incur in availing of the services of electric car charging stations.
As it is, electric car charging stations in the UK is not that plenty compared to fuel-refilling stations so that alone limits the mobility of electric cars.
Unlike hybrid vehicles which can shift from being powered by electricity to that of fuel in practically just one push of a button, full EVs require that an electric car charging station is somewhere near when it reaches its full range. Otherwise, it would fizzle out like an appliance that was pulled out from the electric socket.
Because electric car charging stations are far and few in between, there is the unspoken monopoly of the electric car charging business, which means that they can charge EV owners for a rate that they dictate and their customers cannot do anything because their electric cars need the service.
Clamping down on expensive car charging stations
Having seen a major drawback in moves to espouse the use of hybrid or fully electric cars among British people, the UK government has announced that it would be clamping down on electric car charging stations which charge a hefty fee to their customers starting next year.
Apparently, the government does not want EV owners to think that electric and hybrid cars are expensive to run as diesel-powered vehicles do so it plans to go hard after overpriced electric car charging stations, reports Autocar of UK.
Accordingly, there will be new rules that will come out in 2017 that will set the common standards for pricing between suppliers. At the moment, British motorists pay up to £7.50 for a half-hour charger at some roadside electric car charging stations in the UK.
Sources said that the rules would likely include maximum charges and removing the need for multiple memberships across different companies that run charging stations.
MPs filed a report in September that showed acquisition of electric cars was below expectation. The government set a target of 9% of new cars and vans on British to be classed as ultra-low emission vehicles by 2020, but the environmental audit committee predicted the current rate shows that number would only be 7%.
Making charging a lot easier
The rules are meant to make owning and running electric cars more appealing in the UK by making charging easier and also keeping the costs down for motorists.
Range anxiety is a hugely prohibitive factor in purchasing electric cars and a more user-friendly, affordable, and comprehensive roadside charging system, especially in rural areas and motorways, would surely go a long way to making electric cars a more realistic possibility for UK buyers.
At present, there are around 11,000 charging stations in the UK and currently, Chargemaster provides the UK’s largest EV charging network with 6,000 charging points available.
At a cost of £7.85 per month, subscribers have access to all charging stations including the 5,000 that are free. But for non-subscribers, a £1.20 pay-as-you-go fee is chargeable, while some stations charge more than £7 for a half-hour rapid charge.
Another charging station company, Ecotricity, runs the majority of motorway charging points and charges £6 for a 30-minute charge, but the cost is free as part of Ecotricity’s home energy customer subscription.
Proposals for change will be presented in the Modern Transport Bill, which is expected to be presented to the government in early 2017.
According to a spokesman for the UK Department of Transport, they want to see a reliable and hassle-free public charging network so the sector can continue to grow by simplifying memberships, making pricing more consistent and transparent and making charge points easier to operate.