The Department for Transport (DfT) has been called on to deliver a number of new policies designed to incentivise the take-up of ultra low emission vehicles (ULEVs), including helping workplaces invest in charging points.
The Environmental Audit Committee released a report yesterday criticising the department’s efforts to increase the number of electric and hybrid vehicles on British roads. It specifically targets DfT’s market share projections for ULEVs, claiming the 3-7% figure with a mid-point of 5% by 2020 is “too vague”.
EAC chair Mary Creagh MP said: “We need 9% of all new cars to be ultra-low emission vehicles by 2020 if we’re going to meet our climate change targets at the lowest cost to the public. But the department’s forecasts show it will get only around half way to this target. This failure risks making it more expensive to meet our long term carbon reduction targets.
“The department should also aim for almost two thirds of new cars and vans to be ultra-low emission vehicles by 2030. With no strategy, we have no confidence that the DfT will meet this target.”
During the committee’s inquiry, EAC members suggested to officials that current progress had not been ambitious enough. In response Lucy Chadwick, director general of DfT’s international, security and environment group replied: “We will set out very clearly, in terms of the carbon reduction plan, what we see as the transition through and if there is a difference with the Committee on Climate Change – and I am not saying that there will be – we will set out why and what our analysis is based on.”
The carbon reduction plan is due by the end of the year and set out the government’s approach to meeting the requirements of the fifth carbon budget.
However, EAC believes the department is already too far behind to meet the budget and states in its report that it has no confidence that the UK will achieve a 60% market share for ULEVs by 2030. This is due in part to the lack of policy beyond 2020, which the National Audit Office claimed had caused “concerns regarding the lack of a clear medium-term strategy” among stakeholders.
“Investors crave stability and certainty, and one way the department can provide this is through policies that signal to industry its intention to incentivise ULEV uptake,” the report added.
Among the policies suggested by the report is helping workplaces to invest in charging points for electric vehicles as currently, a £500 grant is only available to domestic installations. Reports emerged in June of a possible workplace charging grant however DfT denied them, telling Clean Energy News: “At this point there’s no firm announcement set.”
The EAC report also suggested changes to company car taxation to support increased uptake of EVs in the commercial sector. This benefit in kind tax is based on fuel type, tailpipe emissions and total cost and for an electric or ULEV producing 0-50 CO2g/km is already set at just 5%.
This is set to rise to 16% by 2019-20 but still sits far lower than conventional cars while new bands are scheduled to be developed post 2020.
the government support ULEV fleet procurement by underwriting risk or guaranteeing buy-back, as well as introducing a national grant scheme for ULEV taxis beyond 2020 to reduce their price.
This is already slated for 2018 in London when new rules coming into force at the start of the year will require all taxis to be ultra low emission. Transport for London will provide grants of £3,000, on top of the Office for Low Emission Vehicle’s plug-in car grant of up to £4,500, towards the purchase of a zero emission capable taxi from mid-2017 to 2020.
It has also been suggested that DfT work closely with other departments, most importantly the Treasury, to develop a clear policy timetable to incentivise the EV market and ensure a long-term stream of public finances.
Finally, the government should transfer existing EU targets which currently govern the UK’s efforts to reduce emissions in the transport sector into UK law following the UK’s vote for Brexit. Currently the government is subject to the incorporation of 10% of renewable energy in transport however the UK had only reached 4.1% in 2015, which was in fact a decrease of 0.8% from the previous year.
In response to the report’s findings, a DfT spokesperson said: “We are committed to improving air quality and reducing vehicle emissions. We want nearly all cars and vans to be zero emission by 2050 and are investing more than £600 million in this Parliament to support the manufacture, use and uptake of ultra-low emission vehicles.
“We welcome the Environmental Audit Committee’s report and will consider the recommendations and respond in due course.”