SMS responds to Government’s U-turn on petrol & diesel vehicle ban

“The government’s decision to postpone the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars until 2035 is disappointing. Consistent policymaking is essential for long term investment decisions, and U-turns such as this are unhelpful.

However, from the perspective of the country’s EV charging industry, the news changes absolutely nothing. Our commitment to rolling out the chargepoint infrastructure that is required to meet rapidly growing national demand remains undeterred.

Such collective efforts have already seen almost 50,000 public EV chargepoints installed across the UK in more than 25,000 locations, with another 250,000 estimated to be needed by the end of the decade just to keep up with demand. On that front, we know that there are now already more than 1.3 million fully electric or plug-in hybrid cars on UK roads, with one being sold every 60 seconds according to latest industry figures. On this evidence, there is a clear wave of momentum and investment – both in terms of the EV charging infrastructure rollout and EV adoption by the UK population.

Whilst a five year delay to the ban on new ICE vehicles is unhelpful, it will not stall the ongoing and much needed transition away from fossil fuels. So, as an industry, we’ll continue to keep on delivering the infrastructure that the UK needs, to meet the current and ever growing demands from EV drivers.”

Eugenio Herrero, Managing Director of EV Charging Infrastructure