Not perhaps a total shock to anyone who knows how the country is wired.  But interesting that the cat is out of the bag publicly as it were.

The actual report is here  These sections are germane, and seem to be the ones the Torygraph article is based on.

44.Drivers who do not have access to off-street parking and who live in rural or remote areas may struggle to charge their vehicles. To ensure that a comprehensive network of electric vehicle charging infrastructure is in place by 2030, sub-national transport bodies and local authorities will need to implement strategies to deliver a range of practical and accessible charging solutions to suit local needs.

45.As part of its electric vehicle charging infrastructure strategy, the Government must explain:

a)how it will support all regions and local authorities to deliver sufficient and well-maintained charging infrastructure solutions tailored to local needs, so that no area is left behind; and

b)how it will ensure that the roll-out of charging infrastructure keeps pace with the increase in EVs and that the right types of chargers are in the right locations.

46.To facilitate the roll-out of charging infrastructure, the Government must:

a)use the upcoming Planning Bill to make public charge point provision a requirement of local plans;

b)make funding for the on-street residential charging scheme dependent upon local authorities having detailed charge point plans in place which support rapid charging options; and

c)ring-fence a portion of the £90 million local charging scheme to allow local authorities to employ dedicated ‘charge point champions’ to deliver local charging infrastructure strategies.

47.The Government must work with National Grid to map the electricity network to assess potential weak areas, especially in rural locations, and to develop a plan to prevent ‘not-spots’ from emerging similar to those during the roll-out of broadband and mobile coverage.

more on this story in  Fleet news 

Can the UK's output even cope with the demand? I know not everyone will switch to EV in the same time and I guess interconnectors might be able to bring in more from main land Europe. It will be interesting to see how it goes. 

It gets  more interesting in the context of a desire to phase out gas boilers in favour of electricity - if you have not seen it before this OFGEM report from a few years ago has some interesting numbers to inform discussion..

Almost half of the final energy consumed in the UK is to provide heat (760 TWh) …(per year)…

 – more than that used to produce electricity or for transport. Around 57% of this heat (434 TWh) goes towards meeting the space and water heating requirements of our homes. This means that decarbonising domestic buildings, many of which are connected to the gas grid, forms a key part of the challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. At approximately 300GW, aggregate peak demand..  … (In winter)…

Mike.

There was also a piece on the Beeb today. Thank you to Mike for the link.

Smart charging (in both senses) seems to be the answer: there will not only be “spare” capacity for generation, but also distribution during off-peak periods.

Politically, the aim is laudable enough, but perhaps not so realistic. Nobody seems to want to consider the energy consumption (and CO2 emission) involved in making a vehicle. In the days of Minis and Escorts, you were lucky to keep a car on the road for much more than 10 years because of rust, and wear in the running gear. 20 years is now a perfectly reasonable expectation.

This can't be true - surely all those nice people that have been telling our glorious leaders that the move to net zero carbon emissions is easy can't be wrong - just say we are going to do it and, by magic, it will happen.

Next you will be telling me that the 'Emperor's new clothes' don't exist.

Regards 

Geoff Blackwell

I feel that the problems are exaggerated.

Most rural homes DO have off street parking, lack of same is more of an urban problem.

An EV can be slow charged with a “granny lead” anywhere with mains electricity. A 12 hour overnight charge at this slow rate will be fine for almost all users.

Charging at 7 kw is possible almost anywhere with mains electricity, very few drivers will need more than that.

Most charging will be done at night for two reasons, firstly most vehicles are unused at night, and secondly overnight charging will be encouraged by preferential tariffs.

Daytime charging is easily offset by installing grid tied PV. A 4 kw PV installation on every house with an EV will avoid any net increase in daytime load. A million 4 kw PV installs should produce an average of 1 kw each. A million EV chargers will probably use less than 1 kw each. And yes I know that the EV chargers are probably 7 kw each, but a lot of the vehicles will be already “full”, or in use, or parked not at home, so 1 kw each on average is generous.

With enough grid tied PV capacity, preferential tariffs could encourage charging in daylight hours. 

Most of the houses in the village I live in do not have off street parking and would have to run a cable over the footpath or even to parking bays on the other side of the road. I doubt many of them can afford to have a 4kw PV system installed, even if they were to have a suitable roof space.

I am glad to see that a few others here are realistic. You may have your PV-charged car Broadgauge, why not just put the solar cells all over the bodywork? Many roofs are unsuitable, not south-facing etc. Even so in winter, you will struggle to get more than a few kWh from the solar. It all sounds just fine until you need the car and the battery has enough charge to go nowhere, and the heater will reduce the range by a factor of 3. It would be even worse if the car is used to store the “excess” electricity and it is sold on. Renewable electricity simply does not work in developed countries, Germany was very keen until reality hit and they are now building more coal power stations. Funny that! I am waiting for the plans for significant storage to be released, the requirement suggested is 100-200 TWh, with enough turbines to recharge this in 20 days, I wonder where they can be put because there is not enough land or sea or materials or labour or of course money!

I looked at the problem of replacing ICE vehicles in Germany a few years using the anual figures for the consumption of petrol and diesel. The total to replace petrol and diesel was around 220 TWh. This appears to include fuel for agricultural and railway use.  The figure just to replace cars was between 70 and 100 TWh (it is difficult to determine how many LCVs are petrol powered and how many cars are diesel powered). There were many assumptions in this and also valid arguments that we ought to be changing the structure of society instead of just trying to replace like with like.

If this is added to thefigures to replace gas for heating we will be looking at doubling the UK's electricity consumption.

Hinkley Point C will produce around 25 TWh per year. Get building ?