New charging regulations for electric vehicles are being introduced today to help make the UK’s infrastructure more reliable for motorists considering switching.
Last November, the Government announced that it would be rolling out new regulations for public charging points across the UK for all charge point operators to abide by.
The Department for Transport said it wanted to ensure that the experience of consumers using public chargers across the UK was “consistent and positive” to support the transition to EVs.
The Public Charge Point Regulations came into force on November 24, 2023, and built on four areas to have a good consumer experience, namely locating chargers, ease of payment, ensuring chargers work and comparing prices.
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Drivers could soon see improvements to public EV chargers
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As part of the new regulations, charge point operators must ensure that as of today, November 24, 2024, new public charge points of 8kW and above and existing charge points of 50kW and above must offer contactless to consumers.
Charging networks that open their charge points for public use will have one year from the date that the charge point becomes public to offer contactless.
From today, motorists should also see that all rapid charge points have a reliability rate of 99 per cent, measured as an average across each charge point operator’s rapid network.
Charge point operators must ensure that they publish information about their compliance with the reliability target on their websites.
It is hoped that this will help motorists make an informed choice about where to charge, especially if they are near a number of different chargers belonging to different operators.
The regulations state that operators must also submit an annual reliability report to the Secretary of State and the enforcement authority.
All charge points must also have a free-to-use 24/7, staffed telephone helpline available and advertised to help motorists if they are in difficulty.
Data must be accurate and charge point operators must use the Open Charge Point Interface (OCPI) to hold and open their data.
Only one policy area – pricing transparency – was required of charging operators from last year. It required them to ensure that the maximum price of a charging session must be displayed clearly in pence per kilowatt hour.
It outlined that the price can be displayed either on the charge point or through a separate device which does not require a person to have entered into a contract with the charge point operator.
According to the latest data from Zapmap, there are 71,459 EV charging points across the UK, with more than 1,000 added in the last month alone.
Of these, there are 13,953 rapid or ultra-rapid charging devices across almost 5,900 locations around the country. Greater London has more than 21,600 charging points in total, while the South East of England has the most rapid or ultra-rapid chargers.
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Public EV chargers will be required to have a 99 per cent reliability rate
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A further deadline is in place for 2025 where charge point operators must enable consumers to pay through at least one roaming provider at their charge points.
From December 2023, charge point operators must also notify the Secretary of State of their existing payment roaming providers and when they add or remove a payment roaming provider.
