Sales of electric vehicles (EVs) are rising dramatically. But, despite the necessary charging infrastructure being on the government’s agenda since early 2022, there remains a huge discrepancy between demand and availability.
Electrifying its fleet is a significant step for any business looking to achieve net zero emissions, especially in light of government plans to end the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030.
Without the proper infrastructure in place, though, this worthy ambition may prove unattainable.
Growing adoption
A transition to EVs is critical to meeting the UK’s target of being net-zero by 2050. Achieving this requires the uptake of EVs to reach at least 55 percent of all vehicles by 2032.
Fortunately, things appear to be moving in the right direction. 2021 saw the biggest annual increase in the number of registrations of EVs – up 74 percent on the previous year. And, at the end of July 2022, more than 930,000 plug-in vehicles had been registered – more than were sold throughout all of 2021.
Investment into charging points is vital to this growing adoption of EVs, something the UK Government acknowledges. As part of its Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy, it recently published plans to install 300,000 public EV charging points by 2030 – almost five times the number of fuel pumps on our roads today.
The plan is to make public charging points accessible to everyone across the country. Local councils are set to receive funding to grow charging infrastructure within communities, while £950 million will go toward ensuring the best technology is available to everyone that needs it.
Picking up the pace
The pace of the rollout appears to be slowing, however. The ratio of charging points to plug-in vehicles fell by 31 percent during 2020, and decreased further – by 22 percent – between October 2021 and January 2022. Currently, only one new charger is being installed for every 52 EVs registered. At this rate, meeting the government’s target would require five times as many charging points to be installed every month for the next eight years.
Action is needed now to rectify the situation, and ensure the UK has the infrastructure in place to allow it to meet its net zero target by 2050. Without it, those businesses that make up the country’s supply chains will find the electrification of their fleet unsustainable – especially those with high mileage vehicles that must be charged at regular intervals.
Supply chain efficiency
Greater efficiency can help businesses meet their climate goals as supply chains have become increasingly complex in recent years. Facing pressures such as a rising demand for on-time delivery, global resource shortages, increasing fuel costs, and growing market uncertainty, organisations are increasing their stock holdings, and focusing more on returns and refurbishment to ensure parts are at hand to maintain critical equipment. As a result, more than 40 percent of supply chain delivery costs – not to mention a significant percentage of carbon emissions – are the result of journeys to and from the field service edge.
The power of partnerships
Building on private partnerships offering efficient and reliable services could address this, as well as speeding up the process of building out, and maintaining, the infrastructure needed for a reliable EV charging network. Importantly, such partnerships depend on engineers who can focus on helping to install and repair charge points without the need to travel long distances to source or collect parts.
Providing field service teams with real-time visibility into which parts are available can actually make deliveries more predictable and energy efficient. What’s more, as well as reducing the number of potentially polluting journeys, a more closely integrated field service operation will help quicken the pace of the rollout of charging points.
The rapid growth of EVs, necessary for the country to achieve its climate change goals, isn’t currently being matched by the installation of charging points. Without the infrastructure in place, businesses simply can’t electrify their fleets. But by working more closely – and smartly – together, a more efficient supply chain could support the rollout, and put the country back on track toward meeting its target.
