Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent progress he has made on supporting the roll out of electric vehicles.

Industry statistics suggest that over 750,000 plug-in vehicles have been sold in the UK since 2010, and over one in six cars sold in 2021 had a plug. Charging infrastructure has also been increasing. Government and industry have supported the installation of over 28,000 publicly available charging devices including more than 5,100 rapid devices – one of the largest networks in Europe. The Government has supported the installation of nearly a quarter of a million chargepoints in homes and workplaces.

Building on the £1.9 billion from Spending Review 2020, the Government has committed an additional £620 million to support the transition to electric vehicles (EV).  The additional funding will support the rollout of charging infrastructure, with a particular focus on local on street residential charging, and targeted plug-in vehicle grants.

Alongside funding, we are also introducing the new regulations to support the transition. Legislation laid in December 2021 will require all new residential and non-residential buildings with associated parking in England to have a chargepoint installed at the point of construction. Later this year we intend to regulate to improve the consumer experience at public chargepoints. Helping consumers locate the right chargepoints for their needs; making it easier to pay; ensuring charging infrastructure is reliable; and pricing is transparent. We will also be consulting on the introduction of a zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate - setting targets for a percentage of manufacturers' new car and van sales to be zero emission each year from 2024.

Our soon to be published EV Infrastructure Strategy will set out the vision and action plan for charging infrastructure rollout needed to achieve the 2030/35 phase out successfully and to accelerate the transition to a zero-emission fleet.