Islanders are invited to have their say on a strategy outlining how the Isle of Wight Council will help bring forward hundreds more charging points for electric vehicles, to support the move to greener travel.
An 8-week consultation on the Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Strategy was launched on Friday, and residents have until 21st April to give their views.
The plan sets out how an extensive network of public charge points will encourage people to switch to electric vehicles (EV) at the earliest opportunity.
The strategy proposes some actions the council can take to support the rollout. In particular, the council wants to plan for residents that do not have off-street parking and who will be completely reliant on the public network.
Councillor Phil Jordan, Cabinet member for highways and infrastructure, said:
“Many residents and businesses have already embraced electric vehicles, and we know that many more will be keen to do so over the coming years.
“We recognise that for everyone to make the switch, the right charging infrastructure will need to be available around the Island. We want to give as many people as possible the confidence to switch to an electric vehicle at the earliest opportunity, to decarbonise emissions as rapidly as we can.
“We also want to hear from residents, visitors, local businesses and anyone else with an interest in EV chargepoints to help shape this strategy — we want to understand how you think we can take this strategy forward and what you think our role should be.”
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The sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans in the UK will end in 2030 and, with the target of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2040 in the council’s ‘Mission Zero’ Climate and Environment Strategy, there is a need to ensure infrastructure is in place enabling residents to make the switch to electric.
Councillor Jonathan Bacon, Cabinet member for environment, added:
“The council is committed to working with partners and the community to tackle climate change and switching the way we power our cars and vans is a critical component of this.
“At this stage, the number of public chargepoints that will be required for a full network is unknown. It will be subject to changes in technology, but the number is likely to be a few hundred at least.
“Like most councils, the council will seek third party funding for all its chargepoints and will work with operators that are able to provide a reliable and competitive service.
The full consultation document is available at: www.iow.gov.uk/Council/OtherServices/zzzElectric-Vehicle-Chargepoints/EVCI-Strategy-Consultation on the ‘EVCI Strategy Consultation’ tab, whilst the survey itself is available here.
Another of Jordans half baked money wasting ideas. What percentage of people have EV’s and how many will be changing over to them, not many I think you will find. All EV’s do is to push the point of pollution up the chain to the power stations etc, the oh so green lot and the snowflakes will disagree but that is a fact. You don’t need “confidence” to switch to an electric vehicle, you need money, and right now most normal people don’t have any because of food going up, gas and electric going up, and of course the wonderful council tax hikes too.
In other words a decision has already been made but the council needs to consult to be transparent.
That’s right, and no doubt the “consultation” will be totally biased towards what the council want to do with no means of objecting to or disagreeing with their plans, as usual.
No decision as they have not the foggyest idea…
Many of the green verges along roadways could have charging points and a parking space or two installed upon them.
The Council could then ‘charge’ forgive pun, the companies providing the charger a fee for rental of the site, AND the Council would no longer have the expense of cutting those verges.
The contract could insist that the charge provider is responsible for maintaining the site, thus pushing the costs onto them.
But of course the Council will give contracts to those who ‘thank’ them the best, and WE willl pay the price for their greed and sleaze.
If you want to be “green” keep the car you have, nothing is more polluting than a new car, and electrics are the filthiest vehicles ever produced, easy!
Why can’t electric charge points just be set up privately. The council are seeking third party funding for all these points so what exactly are they bringing to the table?
I will stay with my good old petrol car, thank you!
Only the filthy rich and well heeled will be buying EVs in 2030. The rest of us will be driving round in 30 year old + cars and spending a fortune in keeping them on the road.
Except you won’t.
If the authorities want to get you out of your petrol/diesel car they can, and they will.
Simply a case of making all Island towns, or even the whole Island, an ULEZ.
You will go electric, if you can afford it, or use the bus.
So basically what the council are saying is they don’t have a clue…100’s of charge points? More like thousands required. So far so good. What about the infrastructure ? The size of the cables under the road and the transformers supplying those cables will not support multiple cars being charged overnight….This Island already has to restrict home solar generation power because of the poor infrastructure.
The Government and Councils need to wake up to the fact that they are not going to get the millions of people who have to park on the roads to buy electric cars.Quite apart from the apparently dubious idea that they are actually beneficial in combating climate change when taking manufacture and support into account.
This is exactly the same situation as we had some years ago when we were all told to go diesel and now diesel is vilified and discriminated against.
In not so many years time these EV batteries will need replacing and there is currently no way to recycle or even dispose of them safely, the environmental destruction caused by mining and processing lithium is horrendous but as it happens in mostly third world countries it does not matter.
Where do these fools think all the electricity will come from to charge the EV’s when the grid is already creaking.
The grid is indeed already “creaking” mainly because we want ever more electric equipment but will not discipline ourselves to program its use. Efforts by OfGEM, Octopus etc, belated though they are, are trying to educate us into more sensible use of electricity whereby we can better utilise resources. This means wider deployment of batteries (including those in EVs), more rooftop solar (because it’s next to the point of consumption and thus doesn’t need grid capacity) and load shifting (to use nuclear capacity at night).
Some of the views expressed above show just how difficult this education will be, but full marks to Phil Jordan for at least confronting the issue.
achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2040. Complete pie in the sky.
NOT AT COUNCIL TAX PAYERS EXPENSE.
Basically, there would need to be a charging point for every vehicle that currently parks on the road i.e. at least one for every house without a driveway. That’s clearly impractical but it sums up the lack of thinking which has gone into the whole EV introduction.
The ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles being sold in just 7 years time needs to be put back by 10 or 15 years at least, by which time we might just have come up with a solution for the problem of charging EVs when you don’t have a driveway. Batteries that can be fully charged in the same time as it currently takes to fill a fuel tank is the answer but I think that’s a long way off yet.