22 Centre for Economics and Business Research charging times (i.e., the avoidance of major queuing). In this sense, the estimated costs could prove to be relatively conservative, and the estimated benefits could prove to be optimistic. In a DfT and ‘Britain Thinks’ survey of charging habits, respondents were asked about how often they charge at home during the day and overnight. Overnight charging was more common than daytime charging and the most commonly report charging frequency was 1-2 times per week.33 The survey also found that the public charging locations most used on a regular basis were at work/place of education or in a business or organisation’s car park, with three in 10 respondents indicating that they charged at each of these locations at least once a week (30% at each location). 34 This shows that there are opportunities to save time by charging at times when other activities are being undertaken. However, this will not always be the case. For instance, a quarter of respondents also reported charging at a service station/dedicated EV charging hub at least once a week. Furthermore, there are a significant proportion of drivers that do not and will not have access to off-street parking. The survey found that those persons were also significantly more likely than average to report charging at business or organisation’s car park (51%) at least once a week. A significant additional cost is the extra time taken to re-charge with compared to re-fuelling an ICE vehicle. Whilst this impact will decline over time, as charging times decrease, there are still significant costs in the interim. Moreover, there needs to be significant public and private investment to generate improvements in re-charging times. The estimated scale of this impact is £46.5 billion in total. Value of time impacts (£Bn) Total Car Motorbike LGV HGV Time spent refuelling/recharging 46.5 25.6 0.4 12.9 7.5 The need to upgrade transport and energy infrastructure Costly electricity network upgrades will be required to cater to the demand from a growing electric car and van fleet, and potentially heavy goods vehicles too. The costs and will vary between sites, depending on the location and available capacity. This is not only to accommodate additional demand, but to facilitate a sufficient ‘Smart’ grid, which is deemed necessary to facilitate the significantly increased demand for electricity, potentially at specific times i.e., rush hour. Additional investment will be required whether bans are implemented or not, given the expected increase in EV use in both scenarios. However, it is assumed that the required investment in the case of bans being implemented is much more during the years 2022-20250 33 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1078871/dft-evdriver-survey-summary-report.pdf 34 Electric Vehicle Charging Research - Link
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODMyMDY=