The shift to electric vehicles (EVs) is driving a new North-South divide, according to new research conducted by green energy company Bulb.
Bulb’s analysis shows that there is no shortage of interest in EVs across the North, with online searches up 75% in the past year.
However, despite this, people aren’t switching to electric vehicles in Northern regions as quickly as those in the South, with the North home to just 19% of the UK’s EVs compared to the South which is home to 48%.
According to Bulb the main reason for this is a lack of EV infrastructure.
Regions with low EV adoption have some of the lowest numbers of public charges per capita.
For example, the North of England is home to 65% fewer public charging devices per 100,000 people than the South.
The North East also has the lowest government transport spending and has just 8% more public chargers in the past year.
In comparison, in London and the South East, the top-funded regions, public chargers have increased by a third.
Based on these findings, Bulb is calling on the government to scrap VAT on green products like EVs in order to make green technology more affordable for millions of people.
Removing VAT from a mass-market EV, like a Renault Zoe, would reduce the cost by more than £4,500, and would make a home charger at least £90 cheaper.
Hayden Wood, co-founder and CEO of Bulb said: ‘There’s no shortage of interest in EVs, but we’re heading into a new North–South divide because of a lack of public charging and government spending in the North. With big changes after the local elections in the UK, now’s the time to level up public charging and scrap VAT on green products to turn the lights green on EV ownership around the country.’
Photo Credit – Pixabay
Why should there be any public charging stations? The free market can set them up, in the same way that the free market sets up gas stations. EVs should really be called EEVs, i.e. elsewhere emitting vehicles. There is a reason the internal combustion engine was invented – it is the most efficient means of converting fossil fuel to motion. Energy losses in transmission far exceed the savings in emissions at the vehicle, and there is no way that solar is going to power England! EVs are a hoax.
Electric vehicles are nowhere near as green as portrayed. The batteries require vast quantities of lithium and other minerals which are mined in environmentally sensitive places and are notoriously difficult to recycle at the end of their finite life. They also lose efficiency during their working life and after a few years will produce only a fraction of the original power whereas my ten year old diesel car still drives like new. I can also drive 600 miles without refuelling. Try that with electric! The fact that a seven year old electric car is almost worthless shows the problem. By far the greatest environmental damage is done by the manufacture of new vehicles so running a ten year old diesel car is actually kinder to the planet than running a new electric one and yet we get taxed heavily for doing it. Air quality may be a problem in cities but it most certainly isn’t in large rural parts of the UK and is far from being the biggest environmental challenge we face. Deforestation and water pollution and the decimation of wildlife are of far greater concern to the world as a whole.