Transport Insights

Labour appears to have dropped the Tory target of 300,000 public chargepoints for EVs by 2030, as well as its own pledge to set new “binding targets”.

That’s reading between the lines of a Department for Transport (DfT) press release, which says the government is “set to” roll out 100,000 chargepoints in England, “in the coming years” and makes no mention of the 300,000 target.

In fact, the DfT now says “tens of thousands of chargepoints” will be installed by 2030.

The 300,000 by 2030 target, which applies to the UK as a whole, was in the Tories’ March 2022  electric vehicle infrastructure strategy, which has not been withdrawn.

In its 2023 Plan for the Automotive Sector, Labour said the Tory government was “on course to miss its aim of having 300,000 public chargers available by 2030 by a decade”, which it said “will leave drivers fighting over available chargepoints.”

It added:

“Labour will accelerate the electric vehicle charge point roll-out by setting new binding targets. These targets will be binding on the government itself to give consumers confidence in future supply.”

The DfT says the 100,000 new chargepoints in England will come on top of the 80,000 public chargepoints already available in the UK.

Pretending the target doesn’t exist seems like a good idea for Labour in the circumstances. Roads minister Lilian Greenwood, said: “This government is powering up the EV revolution by rolling out a chargepoint every 29 minutes.”

That’s fewer than 1,500 a month, while another 220,000 by 2030 would require 44,000 a year over five years, depending on what “by 2030 means”, or 3,667 a month. 

By way of a footnote, the Tory strategy was headed “Taking Charge”, while today’s DfT press release is called “Charging into the Future”.

“Backing off” might be more accurate.