Government to invest £400 million in electric car charging infrastructure

The Government is set to invest £400 million in the UK’s electric car charging infrastructure in a bid to accelerate electric car sales.

Chancellor of the exchequer Philip Hammond announced the massive investment in charging, as well as plug-in vehicle grants, in his Autumn Budget 2017 speech.

He said: “Our future vehicles will be driverless, but they’ll be electric first and that’s a change that needs to come as soon as possible for our planet.

“So, we’ll establish a new £400 million charging infrastructure fund, invest an extra £100 million pound in plug-in car grants and £40 million pounds in charging research and development.”

The new funding follows the news that petrol and diesel car sales would be banned in Britain by 2040.

The announcement has been met with wide-spread positivity.

David Martell, chief executive of Chargemaster, said: “The £400m announced to support EV charging infrastructure is good news for charge point suppliers and operators such as Chargemaster, and we hope that some of this funding will be directed towards preparing network connections and reinforcing the electricity grid where required.

“We have already attracted private investment into the deployment of charge points across the UK, and having sufficient suitable sites at which to install them is important.”

Andrew Hooks, COO of online car buying marketplace Carwow, said: “We welcome plans to invest in building Britain’s electric infrastructure and in subsidising adoption.

“The question is: what does £400m buy us in terms of infrastructure? Will it enable the UK to cope with the clear desire of motorists to embrace this change? When will it be realised? Will the resulting charging points deliver the speed busy consumers need?”