Proposal 21 – Delivering a high-quality public charging service for EV drivers

5 December 2020

Ensuring that public EV charging infrastructure is effectively developed, operated and maintained is important to growing public confidence and trust in EVs. Poorly maintained and operated chargepoints create the risk of delivering a poor charging experience for EV drivers and adversely impacting public perception and uptake. 

The Government should provide support to local authorities and all other organisations concerned with providing and maintaining public EV charging infrastructure. This should include both the sharing of best practice and provision of sufficient guidance on EV charging infrastructure development and its procurement and operation. This will ensure longer-term charging and electricity network infrastructure requirements are considered (aligned to Proposal 20) and that responsibilities for chargepoint maintenance and customer support are clearly defined with appropriate provisions to address contract termination, or in the event of a chargepoint operator failure. The type of EV charging infrastructure should suit the likely dwell time of drivers at different locations. It should also consider the management of parking to ensure chargepoints are effectively utilised.

A common approach to development, procurement, operation and maintenance of chargepoint infrastructure by local authorities and other public bodies will create efficiencies, enable industry to deliver, raise standards and minimise geographical disparities in user access and experience. Local authorities may also require ongoing support in applying the common approach to specifying and monitoring service standards for public EV charging. 

Existing work, such as the ‘general procurement guidance for electric vehicle charge points’ produced by the UK EVSE to be considered for wider dissemination. Building on the data made available under Proposal 11, performance should be monitored and disseminated as appropriate.