Government’s 1.6 billion Electric Vehicle Infrastructure announcement Press response to by Joel Teague, CEO of Co Charger
The Government's 1.6 billion Electric Vehicle Infrastructure strategy proposals show a welcome commitment to EV uptake,' says Joel Teague, CEO of Co Charger, a home electric charger sharing app. 'We are especially pleased to see the Government highlighting the need for community charging, as well as tackling resilience and reliability. The latter is a major issue and it’s frustrating when motorists travel to public chargers only to find them not working. Trust in the infrastructure is essential for an effective transition to EVs. However, we do have reservations about some of the proposals - for example, insisting that all the current infrastructure uses contactless payments could be challenging and make the rollout slower and more expensive.'
Comment on EV charging infrastructure and Community Charging
'At Co Charger we are delighted to see Community Charging included in the Government's Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy report (p35). Community Charging involves sharing home electric vehicle charge points and enables motorists with home chargers to rent them out to neighbours who live in flats and terraces. The 'matchmaking', bookings and payments are all taken care of via an app. For the estimated 14 million motorists who can't have a car charger at home this can give them access to bookable, reliable, affordable charging and finally allow them to run an electric vehicle. Community Charging means that rather than waiting for future private, national, and local government investment in charging infrastructure to be rolled out, communities can revolutionise the EV charging network now. At Co Charger we have found that people are very willing to share their chargers, having come from zero to over 2,700 available charge points and 7,500 users in less than 15 months.
There are around 30,000 public charge point devices in the UK – and 400,000 home chargers. If only one in ten of the latter were shared with neighbours, it would double the number of available chargers overnight. Not everyone can share their charge point – for example if they don't have somewhere to put their own car while someone else uses it. But for those who can, it's a quick, cheap, self-scaling and universally beneficial solution that saves tax-payers’ money and shows the answer isn't just investing in more infrastructure – it's in better use of what we already have.
It's time for motorists and everyone working in sustainable transport to help bring about change and start creating a charge point sharing culture across the UK.'