London, UK: Labour has pledged to scale up and improve existing electric vehicle infrastructure but the RHA stresses that the focus on cars risks ignoring the needs of commercial vehicles.
The RHA attended a roundtable session on electric vehicles hosted by shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh. She outlined Labour’s plans for electric vehicle infrastructure and said that the party is planning to scale up electric vehicle infrastructure and improve public perception of that work. She also said the party wants to tackle inequalities in accessing electric vehicle infrastructure.
Industry figures said that the planning system needed reform to ensure power could get to depots – building business confidence to invest was therefore key. Additionally, issues such as reducing VAT charged on electric charging from 20% to 5% and incentivising businesses to invest into the electric vehicle network was raised with Haigh.
The RHA said that it was a positive session. It pointed out that there are challenges for the commercial vehicle sector to transition to net zero. “It must be done the right way so that it doesn’t hurt business,” said the association.
RHA policy lead for environment and vehicles, Chris Ashley said: “Politicians are understandably focused on ensuring the public can charge their electric cars effectively but we need to make sure commercial vehicle needs are kept on Labour’s radar.
“It’s expected that industry will stump up the investment to get power to the depot, rather than relying on public sector support, but we need to explore ways to bring down this cost.”
