Letter: Case for neighbourhood EV charging infrastructure

Brooke Masters’ article “How to crack the economics of EV charging” (Opinion, May 16) focuses on the electric vehicle fast-charging market, but the majority of the need is for slow, neighbourhood charging.

Without more attention on this, car owners are likely to be put off buying EVs as they face increasing difficulties and expense. It will also exacerbate equality issues with richer people tending to pay less to charge their cars and less well-off people tending to have to pay more.

Unlike petrol filling stations, people can charge their vehicles anywhere there is a suitable power supply, and they do not need to be with their cars while charging.

This greater flexibility has fundamental implications. From the EV owners’ perspective, the ideal location for charging is where they leave their car for an extended period of time, and where electricity prices are low. So this usually means at home if they are able to connect to their domestic or neighbourhood electricity supply and slow-charge overnight. It can also mean at work, if parking and charging is available.

This means there is a significant need to expand neighbourhood-level public charging infrastructure. Our modelling predicts that provision needs to increase substantially.

In contrast fast (and expensive) charging will tend to be a choice of last resort and a niche market, for example when travelling long distances on the motorway.

Part of the reason for being lulled into a false perception of the challenge of providing public neighbourhood charging is that existing EV owners tend to be wealthier and to have their own off-street drives where they can charge their cars at home.

So the demand for public neighbourhood charging is currently misleadingly low.

As EV ownership expands, increasing numbers of middle and lower-income households will have EVs and will tend not have their own

off-street drives. If neighbourhood charging is not available they risk being forced to use fast and expensive charging in less convenient circumstances. In contrast wealthier people will tend to have the option to use their cheaper home electricity, which further benefits from a lower VAT rate. An equity reason as well as a market failure reason for giving more attention to public neighbourhood EV charging infrastructure.

Rory Brooke
Head of Economics, Savills, London W1, UK