Compulsory EV chargers give retailers a chance to win back UK shoppers
Shops and supermarkets to become a space for customer spend and EV charging
Substantial investment in EV charging
The UK government has funded over 250,000 home and workplace charge points to date, through theElectric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS).
These grants provide a 75% contribution to the cost of one charge point and its installation. The grant cap is $467 (£350) including VAT per installation.
The main requirement is that a person owns, leases, or has ordered a qualifying vehicle and has dedicated off-street parking at their property. A person may apply for two charge points at the same property if they have two qualifying vehicles.
But what if you don’t have off-street parking?
According to EV charger company Ubitricity,more than 60% of households in English citiesare without off-street parking. These numbers rise to 68% for people living in social housing. Access to affordable street-based EV charging will be essential for this substantial group to enter the EV market.
It’s hardly a saturated market — yet
However, electric and hybrid vehicles onlymake up 44.1% of new cars purchasedin the UK this year.
However, as of September 21, there were more than 675,000 plug-in vehicles with approximately 345,000 BEVs and 325,000 PHEVs registered in the UK. Clearly, we’re going to need a lot more chargers both at home and in public. Accordingto Zap-Map,there are currently over 17,374 locations with public chargers (one of more charging points in the UK).
Shopping malls and strips, here’s your chance to win back the punters
Overall, I’ll be interested to see if public EV charging requirements could be used as a catalyst to re-energize public spaces. I’m thinking specifically of areas like High Street retail shopping strips and shopping malls. These are critical examples of bricks and mortar retail that died a horrible death as we all moved our shopping online.
EV chargers put businesses on the map (literally in the case of EV charging maps). They create the opportunity for new customer incentives and relationships.
It’s an opportunity for new business models that, if done right, could transform public retail spaces for the better into something relevant and responsive to public needs.
Story byCate Lawrence
Cate Lawrence is an Australian tech journo living in Berlin. She focuses on all things mobility: ebikes, autonomous vehicles, VTOL, smart ci(show all)Cate Lawrence is an Australian tech journo living in Berlin. She focuses on all things mobility: ebikes, autonomous vehicles, VTOL, smart cities, and the future of alternative energy sources like electric batteries, solar, and hydrogen.
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