Essex Electric Vehicle Charge Point Strategy
Background
Domestic transport, particularly private car use, is the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions and to poor air quality of any sector across the UK economy.
In Essex, 49% of CO²e emissions are from transport, with over half of these emissions coming from cars and a third from heavy and light goods vehicles.
Responding to the climate crisis, the Government is phasing out the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 and plug-in hybrid vehicles by 2035 to accelerate the uptake of zero emission vehicles. At Essex County Council, we have also committed to reducing the county's greenhouse gas emissions, delivering a target of net zero by 2050.
A switch to electric vehicles (EVs) can contribute to improving air quality and achieving our net zero goals. Although only part of the solution, EVs have a key role to play, alongside our work to encourage sustainable transport options, such as walking, cycling and bus travel.
To support the shift to EVs, we need to ensure residents, businesses and visitors to Essex can access a reliable, convenient, accessible and fairly priced network of charging points.
To help achieve this, we have now developed a draft Essex Electric Vehicle Charge Point Strategy which sets out what we want the charging network to look like in Essex, what we can do to unlock funding, and how we can work with businesses and public sector partners to help meet demand.
Read more about the Essex Electric Vehicle Charge Point Strategy in our public consultation brochure.
Electric vehicle charging in Essex
Essex, like much of the UK, is generally in the ‘early adopter’ stage of EV uptake. This is reflected by the general level of charging infrastructure, uptake of electric vehicles and other e-transport services in the county.
However, Essex has seen a gradual increase in ownership of EVs in recent years, rising from 4,500 vehicles in 2018 to 18,500 by the end of 2021, as well as a further 16,000 hybrid vehicles.
EVs rely on a comprehensive private and public-facing charging network and Essex currently has about 300 registered public charge points.
Based on Government projections, around 1,500 public charge points will be needed in Essex by 2025 and 6,000 by 2030. The graph below shows the indicative demand for on-street, destination and on-route public EV charging points in Essex in 2025.
Essex Electric Vehicle Charge Point Strategy
Our new Essex Electric Vehicle Charge Point Strategy is an important first step in helping to improve access to EV charging points in the county.
Although we anticipate that most of Essex’s charging infrastructure will be delivered by the private sector, we have a key role to play in securing Government funding to help fill in gaps in provision and enabling the delivery of charging infrastructure to support residents, such as those with limited access to off-street parking.
The EV market is rapidly evolving and our initial Essex Electric Vehicle Charge Point Strategy looks at a 2-3 year timeframe to specifically address charging infrastructure for EV cars and vans. It focuses on what we can deliver and what we can enable others to deliver up to 2025, setting out our vision and strategy to help decarbonise transport by encouraging the uptake of EVs where car journeys are necessary.
Our vision for the Essex Electric Vehicle Charge Point Strategy is very simple - to deliver 'the Right Charger in the Right Place'. This means that by 2030, residents, businesses, and visitors to Essex, where car or van travel is necessary for their journey, will be able to use electric vehicles and be assured there is an accessible, reliable, easy-to-use, safe, and fairly priced charging network.
We have developed six strategy objectives to start delivering our vision and help decarbonise travel in Essex. They are:
- Social Equality: To deliver an equitable electric vehicle charging network that promotes social justice through an accessible, inclusively designed and fairly priced network to all residents.
- Healthy Environment: To deliver a healthy environment for all by helping decarbonise the transport system, reducing emissions from transport and improving air quality.
- Resilient and Safe Network: To guide and promote a resilient and safe network with infrastructure that is reliable, accessible, safe, compatible, easy to use and represents good value for money at installation and use during its life.
- Integrated Network: To develop an integrated EV offer that complements the promotion of reduced car use, increased sustainable travel choices and future mobility solutions.
- Connected Network Meeting Essential Demand: Better connecting individuals and businesses throughout Essex to support the uptake of electric vehicles where car travel is necessary.
- Creating Better Places: Create better places using infrastructure that is sensitively placed in the right locations, designed to complement our public spaces and minimises the impact on communities.
- More information about the Essex Electrical Vehicle Charge Point Strategy, including our action plan, is available in our consultation document.
Public consultation
The public consultation on our draft Essex Electric Vehicle Charge Point Strategy has now closed.
The consultation was open from Thursday 15 June to Sunday 30 July 2023.
Thank you to everyone who completed our survey or sent us their comments.
Your views are very important to us and your feedback will be used to help revise the strategy and shape the future electric vehicle charging network in Essex.
If you have any questions about our draft Essex Electric Vehicle Charge Point Strategy, please email us at: ECC_EV_Chargepoints@essex.gov.uk.
Next steps and planning for the future
Timeline
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2023
Public consultation and adoption of Phase 1 EV Charge Point Strategy
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2024
Proposed submission of LEVI funding bid to Government
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2024
Proposed public consultation and adoption of Local Transport Plan 4
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2025
Proposed refresh and preparation of Phase 2 EV Charge Point Strategy
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2030
Government ban on sale of new petrol/diesel vehicles
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2035
Government ban on sale of new plug-in hybrid vehicles
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2040
Majority of vehicles now rely on electric technology
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?
Adoption of Connected Autonomous Vehicles?
We expect the Essex Electric Vehicle Charge Point Strategy will be refreshed by 2025 (Phase 2 Strategy) to look at longer-term private car use and EV uptake. It is likely to explore the supply of renewable energy to EV charge points and how we can enable the conversion of public transport, taxis and freight vehicles to cleaner fuels.
Separate strategies will also need to be developed in the future to provide for alternative clean and zero emission fuels, such as hydrogen.