GMB union says costs of motorway charging points for electric vehicles must not “fall on household billpayers”
As the momentum for a switch to electric vehicles continues to build, the GMB union has said the UK government and Ofgem must ensure that the costs of charging points on motorways “don’t fall on household billpayers”.
In a statement issued yesterday (5 April), the GMB said: “National Grid needs to be straight and stop using its support for an early ban on new petrol and diesel car sales as a Trojan horse for extra taxpayer cash to pay for ‘expensive’ and ‘difficult to co-ordinate’ new charging infrastructure.”
GMB continued: “National Grid recently said it would support the government bringing forward its 2040 ban on new petrol and diesel car sales by a decade.
“The company, which runs the UK’s national electricity network and wants to build superfast car charging points at motorway services, told MPs it could cope with the demands of an earlier surge in electric car numbers – but didn’t say who would pay for the new infrastructure.”
Justin Bowden, GMB National Secretary, commented: “When National Grid wraps up a warm welcome to the end of sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040 with vital upgrades to motorway service station electricity infrastructure, it is not being upfront.
“What National Grid fails to make clear is that as Ofgem guidelines stand, it could be household energy bill payers who are hit with the huge costs of installing sufficient electric vehicle (EV) charging points into all the country’s motorway service stations.
“National Grid needs to be straight and stop using its support for an early ban on new petrol and diesel car sales as a Trojan horse for extra taxpayer cash to pay for ‘expensive’ and ‘difficult to co-ordinate’ new charging infrastructure.
“When Grid says the more rapid roll out of EV’s ‘could be facilitated by the close alignment of the transmission and motorway networks’, what they really mean is with some extra cash.
“GMB is saying very loudly and very clearly to Goverment and Ofgem – make clear now that the costs of upgrading the electricity grid to Britain’s motorway service stations with sufficient electric vehicle charging points will not fall on household energy bill payers.”
