Reduced support for charging at home is regrettable, says Chargemaster
David Martell, CEO of Chargemaster, the largest provider and operator of charging points in the UK, has commented on the Office for Low Emission Vehicles’ (OLEV’s) announcement today.
“Reducing support for electric car owners to install a charger at home is premature and a step backwards for UK carbon reduction and the necessary push towards air quality improvement. It means that many plug in hybrid vehicle drivers will simply not bother fitting a charger at home and run their cars on fossil fuel instead. To get the full benefit of owning an EV, a homecharger is vital.”
“Support for home charging offers much better value for money than many other areas that OLEV spends its resources on. It is also most regrettable that this change has been made giving little more than two months’ notice.”
“Until now, UK government has led the way in supporting charging at home. This move is difficult to understand when the market is still fragile and only just starting to gain momentum. It is even more surprising considering government’s recent announcement that it will allocate £600m to support ultra-low emission vehicles over the next six years. To reduce its annual support for charging at home from £12m to £7.5m is unfortunate at this stage of the development of the market.”
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Rachel Burgess: rburgess@torqueagencygroup.com or 020 7952 1070
About Chargemaster
Chargemaster Plc is the UK’s leading provider of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, benefitting from over 25 years of experience working within the telematics and vehicle-orientated industry.
Chargemaster works in partnership with leading energy providers, vehicle manufacturers, government agencies, management consultancies and property development and blue chip companies.
The company operates its own manufacturing facility at Luton Airport which is currently producing over 2,000 charging units a month and operates to ISO9001 quality standards.
It also has its own fleet of over 40 mobile technicians’ vans carrying out installations and maintenance operations across the UK with a focus on quality of service and reliability. Its national network records a daily reliability rate of over 98%.
