Electric car owners to benefit from 'excellent' cost savings making EVs cheaper than petrol vehicles
PA
The AA called on the Government to deliver further savings by slashing VAT rates on public chargers
Electric vehicle drivers have been handed a huge boost with new data showing that residential charging costs have fallen by 12 per cent in the last month.
According to the latest AA EV Recharge Report, drivers who can use community chargers near their homes have seen peak rate slow charging fall by 8p, with off-peak costs dropping by 3p.
Electric vehicle owners who park on the road outside their homes and charge off-peak can now typically save 3.3p per mile compared to the equivalent costs for a petrol vehicle.
People without any dedicated off-street parking using slow chargers during off-peak hours equate to 9.49p per mile, compared to petrol drivers paying 12.85p.
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The AA has called on the Government to slash public charging prices
ETC.As of June 2024, flat rate slow and fast charging costs dropped by 1p/kWh while flat rate rapid charging prices rose by 2p/kWh.
Jack Cousens, head of roads policy at The AA, said: “The fall in peak and off-peak slow charging prices is excellent news for those EV drivers without any off-street parking.
"Considering 40 per cent of households don’t have their own driveway or parking space, keeping residential charging prices low is vital to help prospective EV owners make the switch.
“During the election campaign, Labour often spoke about their intention to decarbonise the transport sector, especially cars."
The AA has called on the new Labour Government to continue with its quick progress in meeting goals set out in its manifesto.
It said Keir Starmer's party could have an "early win" by cutting the rate of VAT on public charging from 20 per cent to five per cent, to match the rate applied to home chargers.
Cousens added that Labour should move forward with its plans to provide localised support to build more chargers around the UK, specifically where drivers are impacted by a postcode lottery.
The Government aims to install 300,000 public chargers by the end of the decade, with current trends suggesting that the target could be met slightly earlier.
According to the latest data from Zapmap, there are 64,775 public charging devices across the UK, with 33,829 different locations for drivers to choose from.
This is in addition to the estimated 700,000 chargers installed at homes or at workplace locations, which is also expected to grow massively by 2030.
Despite the optimism, there are several areas where some motorists will have greater difficulty when looking for a suitable public charging connection.
There are double the number of public charging stations in Greater London (20,679) than in Northern Ireland (613), Scotland (5,663) and Wales (2,764) combined.
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There are almost 65,000 electric vehicle chargers around the UK
PAResearch from the Department for Transport's vehicle licensing statistics shows that at the end of 2023, there were 14,000 electric vehicles in Northern Ireland, 55,600 in Scotland and 19,700 in Wales.
In comparison, there are around 826,500 electric vehicles in England, showing the disparity in the number of EVs compared to the facilities needed to charge those vehicles.