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Britain Powers Up for Electric Vehicle

[Satman3]

Friday, March 18, 2011
Britain Powers Up for Electric Vehicles.
Despite the new UK austerity regime, Her Majesty’s government is to fund the early stage of putting in place a basic charging point infrastructure for electric vehicles. This announcement actually came out last week but with so much else happening like the PDAC mega conference in Toronto, followed by the tragic massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan, I didn’t get to follow up until today. Just to put the UK’s proposed figure of 8,500 charging points into perspective, the UK has about 9,000 petrol filling stations across the country, down from about 18,000 back in 1992. 8,500 should be more than enough to meet likely EV demand by 2013, since few expect the early UK EV uptake to be high outside of some commercial vehicle fleets, until the second generation of lithium-ion batteries become available using graphene or nano-carbon anodes. Right now that technology is just leaving the labs for commercial testing, but it’s a good assumption that they will be around from 2014 onwards. If all lives up to expectation, the EV age should really get underway with the second generation lithium battery.
Thousands of charging points to be installed across UK over next two years, Government to say
Thousands of charging points for electrical cars are to be installed across Britain over the next two years.
The scheme is part of a new Carbon Plan, launched today by deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Energy secretary Chris Huhne, which sets deadlines to help turn Britain into a greener economy.
The Government’s plan says it wants to have developed a “nationwide strategy to promote the installation of electric vehicle infrastructure” by June this year.
The 83 page plan commits the Government to overseeing “up to 8,500 charging points installed across the UK by 2013”, costing up to £30million,
It says: “If we are to see large-scale take-up of electric vehicles as a major form of road transport, developing charging infrastructure will be vital”.
The money will pay for charging points in “streets, homes and sites such as car parks and commercial retail and leisure facilities”, the plan says.
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The wide-ranging Carbon Plan also commits the Government to setting up a new Green Investment Bank by September next year.
In London at present, spotting any type of EV is still something of a rarity, though I did see a BEV G-wiz in heavy traffic on Piccadilly on Wednesday this week. I doubt though that the G-wiz will ever become popular. From our REE perspective, EVs in all their forms will be a big part of the future demand for REEs. As Britain and the rest of the EU power up public recharging access points, public acceptance of EVs will only grow.
Posted by at 06:42:16 AM in Blog, Editor, Graeme Irvine