PRA calls for investment in charging infrastructure

The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) is calling for government to offer grants to retailers for investment into charging infrastructure, following news that the Automated and Electric Vehicles (A&EV) Bill has passed its third reading in the House of Commons.

The Bill proposes giving Government the power to mandate the installation of electric vehicle charge points in large fuel retailers and motorway service areas (MSAs) – which the PRA has consistently argued as unreasonable and unnecessary.

Brian Madderson, chairman of the PRA comments, “Last October PRA was invited to give oral evidence to the A&EV Bill Committee. Since then, we have met with senior officials at the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV), encouraging them to allow the market to dictate the uptake of EV charging infrastructure as is in our member’s interests.

“The best course of action the government can take to ensure the UK has a well- developed EV charge point infrastructure, especially away from urban centres and major roads, would be to create a grant scheme for forecourt retailers – similar to the Homecharge and Workplace schemes which are already in place.”