Hobhouse asks what’s putting the breaks on the Electric Vehicle rollout

17 January 2024

Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath, chaired a roundtable on the future of electric vehicles, welcoming parliamentarians and representatives from the industry to Parliament on the 16th of January.

During her roundtable discussion, Mrs Hobhouse invited both parliamentarians and representatives from the automotive industry to discuss how businesses in the UK should approach the electric vehicle transition. The roundtable heard from representatives of the Climate Group, DPDgroup UK, Royal Mail, Openreach, Fleet Consultancy, LeasePlan as well as others.

Amongst their discussions, the Bath MP raised concerns about various obstacles to the rollout of electric vehicles. She noted that there was still a significant problem with charging anxiety- the worry that charge for an electric vehicle will not last the intended journey, leaving drivers stranded. This worry is intensified by possible challenges to grid capacity.

Another challenge to the electric vehicle transition which was discussed by the group was the need for local knowledge to inform the location of infrastructure. Many raised the fact that electric vehicle charging stations were not being placed in convenient locations in rural and urban areas. The Bath MP agreed that local knowledge was vital for understanding where exactly communities need support with off-street grid connection.

Some of the solutions explored by groups like DPDgroup UK were to share their depot electric charging facilities with smaller businesses. Mrs Hobhouse hailed the sentiment of this collaboration across the industry.

Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath, commented:

“It is vital we can make the transition to electric vehicles as smooth and accessible as possible- and having these discussions is an important step towards this.

“As surface transport is one of the highest emitting sectors in the UK, we rapidly need to accelerate our transition to electric vehicles. We need government support to drive us down the road to net zero.”