Supplementary evidence from Steve Gooding (ELV0129)

September 13 - Session 3: Steve Gooding, Director RAC Foundation

Follow up response on the Electric Vehicle Energy Taskforce mentioned in Session 2.

The Committee members were interested in following up on one point you made in the session. It was around a former/potentially disbanded working group or Committee that brought together a number of stakeholders and sector representatives relating to electric vehicles that you mentioned in relation to the possibility of re-establishing it. Could you possibly send through some more information on the name of the group, what it covered and when it disbanded, or perhaps where I might be able to find some more information?

This from the website https://evenergytaskforce.com/ of the working group – EVET - I mentioned:

“The Electric Vehicle Energy Taskforce was convened by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) at the behest of ministers. It is chaired by Philip New, Chief Executive of the Energy Systems Catapult, facilitated by Jonathan Murray of Zemo Partnership and overseen by the members of the EV Energy Taskforce Steering Group”.

And this from its last report, published in July this year:

“The Electric Vehicle Energy Taskforce was established in September 2018, following an announcement at the Prime Minister’s Zero Emission Vehicle Summit. The Taskforce was initially set up to make suggestions to Government and industry to ensure that the GB energy system was ready for and able to facilitate and exploit the mass take-up of electric vehicles (EVs), which it did with the publication of the report ‘EV Energy Taskforce: Energising Our Electric Vehicle Transition’ in January 2020. Subsequently the Taskforce, at the request of HM Government, has conducted detailed reviews into securing investment, technical standards and data requirements for smart charging, and consumer engagement. This was drawn together in the first quantitative and qualitative review of delivering the UK’s objectives in decarbonising road transport by 2035 in the report ‘Charging the Future: Drivers for Success 2035’, published in March 2022.”

The initial membership comprised reps from all the following:

Automotive Council

BEAMA

Energy Networks Association

Energy Systems Catapult

Energy UK

ITS University of Leeds

Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP – latterly ZEMO)

National Grid

Ofgem

Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV)

Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT)

TechUK

UK Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (UK EVSE)

The final meeting of the EVET was in Spring 2023.

Officials at the Office of Zero Emission Vehicles should be able to inform the Committee of such plans as there may be to replace the EVET.

It is clear that issues remain to be addressed about the unavoidable but still relatively immature relationship between the electric vehicle world and that of electricity supply and distribution, as witnessed by various tales we hear about the costs and response times involved in getting adequate electricity supply to chargepoint locations – witness the pace of ‘Project Rapid’ (a tragic misnomer if ever there was). We would argue that there is a further disconnect between automotive and that of mobile connectivity, as anyone who has attempted to unlock an EV charged using a phone app in a location with poor signal coverage will attest. We would argue that there is a case for a ministerially driven group to identify and address issues needing to be recognised, prioritised, and tackled, and suspect that others would agree.