While I applaud the government in frightening manufacturers into accelerating non ICE development, I can’t see this deadline being achieved
I’m guessing they know they won’t be around in government when they have a problem and have to extend the deadline
Here’s why I’m sceptical
One of my best friends works with every UK petrol forecourt operator from the big boys to the smaller independents
Has done for years, developing sites all over the country
And he told me only last week (and keep this to yourselves as it’s explosive info
)
That every forecourt operator in the UK with the exception of a few BP sites, have cancelled any development of putting electric charging points on any of their current or future forecourt sites
This is why
The only viable and usable charging points for a petrol station are quick chargers as nobody wants to wait around for hours in a petrol station.
To install two quick chargers, you have to install a sub station
The cost of installing a sub station and the chargers costs around £250K
If the chargers are then used constantly during the opening times of the station, the predicted revenue is £15K per charger per annum
It doesn’t make any economic sense so it’s dead in the water and BP are only doing it to try to gain some environmental credibility back after all their disasters
The government through our tax, can’t and rightly shouldn’t subsidise it
The manufacturers can’t make enough money on EV’s yet as they are having to front load the cost of the vehicle with profits which they will loose through loss of parts and servicing so the EV’s are costly and financing companies aren’t quite sure about residuals on lives of batteries so cost to the consumer is high and will continue to be as they loose revenue from selling ICE’s to a confused consumer
If you can charge at home for all your journeys and can afford an EV then they make a lot of sense but the infrastructure is a massive problem and I think will continue to be for a very long time
