Mayor Boris Johnson’s plan to make London the electric vehicle capital of Europe is behind schedule and only making slow progress on the promise to have thousands of electric vehicles on the city’s roads.
A report published this week shows that if the current rate of sales remains the same, it is likely to take centuries to achieve the promises made by Mr Johnson. In 2009 the Mayor of London told fellow international mayors that he would make sure that 100,000 EVs would be on the streets of London “as soon as possible”. However, since the announcement, only 588 electric vehicles have been registered. There are now 2,313 electric vehicles in London which is just 0.08% of the city’s 3m vehicles. Everyone involved wants to see an increase in the number of motorists driving EVs and it appears the Mayor’s best bet may now be van drivers organising commercial vehicle insurance on new electric vans. The extension of the zero emission subsidy to vans should attract some fleet business and that may prove the catalyst.
The Mayor certainly needs something to happen quickly. He set a target of 1,000 of the authority’s vehicles being changed to electric by the end of 2014, but up to date has only managed 49. The charging points on which the vehicles are dependent on now number 400 throughout London, but he has to manifest another 900 by the end of next year. The earlier target of 25,000 by 2015 has already been dropped by the Mayor’s office. If the take-up of electric vehicles in London fails, the report suggests that the Mayor should consider adopting a similar scheme to Paris’ Aetolia electric car hire scheme, which started last year and has so far been very successful.
Murad Qureshi, the committee’s chair, said “Currently progress is slow and we are concerned that it could take many years before we see any environmental benefits from the Mayor’s ambitious plans. If the Mayor wants to encourage more Londoners to drive electric vehicles, he must demonstrate that the charging network is adequate and fits with the way people will actually charge their vehicles. It is unclear at the moment whether it is delivering value for money given the sums already spent on it.”
Tags: Boris Johnson, commercial vehicle insurance, electric vehicles, London