3:50 pm, July 13, 2021
All new-build homes and offices should have electric charging points by law, an MP is urging ministers.
Felicity Buchan said her proposal would address ‘range anxiety’ for EV owners and encourage drivers to buy electric.
The Tory member for Kensington added that her Electric Vehicle Charging Points (New Buildings) Bill would reduce the need for ‘ad hoc’ charging setups such as ‘extension leads dangling through windows’.
Introducing her bill today (Jul 13) under the Ten-Minute-Rule Motion, she told the Commons: ‘When I talk to constituents, the one reservation that they have about buying electric vehicles is concern about the reliability of the infrastructure and the charging network.
‘And because of the concerns about that reliability, they become concerned about range – what is called “range anxiety”.
‘So, by mandating that all new-build offices and homes have these charging points, we will be able to address a lot of these concerns.
‘Residential users will know that they can charge their cars overnight and people, many in my constituency who only have on-street parking, will have confidence that they can charge their cars at their offices.’
She added that her bill was important for safety.
‘It is clearly better that people charge their cars at home with proper chargers rather than some of the ad hoc charging methods that we see at the moment, such as extension leads dangling through windows going towards on-street parking.’
Buchan also said it’d be cheaper to install electric vehicle chargers in all new buildings rather than retrofit them later.
‘The latest data shows that to retrofit an electric vehicle charging point costs £2,040 but to install it from new costs only £976.’
She asked for her bill to receive a second reading on October 22, but it is unlikely to become law in its current form without government support.
