EV INFRASTRUCTURE
68 // January 2020 // www.electrichybridvehicletechnology.com
“The answer to this is a fully
interoperable, peer-to-peer roaming
solution and charging stations that are
designed with integrated contactless
payments and ease of use in mind”
André ten Bloemendal, vice president, Europe, ChargePoint
observes Bloemendal’s colleague, Matthew
Enevoldson. “Norway has a much smaller and
relatively more prosperous population that
is generally concentrated in a small area,”
he explains. “As such, they have gone
the route of making ICE internal
combustion engine vehicles more
expensive through taxation, rather
than off ering large incentives on
buying new vehicles.
“Norway has no value-added tax for
EVs, which is 25% on gas and diesel
vehicles. There is no registration tax on
used car sales, no annual ownership tax, and
no fuel tax. Road tolls are ‘fully or partially’
exempt, bus lanes are mostly open to EVs,
European governments are subject to
international climate agreements and have a
growing awareness of environmental concerns,
so are keen to make eff orts to meet standards
and are committed to emissions reduction. For
example, the UK government announced
recently that electric vehicle charge points are
to be fi tted in all new homes.
A Department for Transportation (DfT)
spokesperson states, “We want to support the
growing uptake of electric cars, and for this
country to be the fi rst place in the world where
every home with an associated parking space
has an electric chargepoint. Through our
£1.5bn US$1.9bn Road to Zero program and
£400m US$520m promise of funding for
e-charging we are serious about the
infrastructure for e-cars.”
On September 10, the UK Government
announced £400m funding to help develop
rapid charging infrastructure points for EVs,
the fi rst £70m US$91m in creating 3,000 new
rapid charge points. Following the news, André
ten Bloemendal, vice president, Europe, at
ChargePoint, described it as a step in the right
direction for the EV industry and necessary
to get infrastructure in place to remove
barriers to consumer adoption.
However, he adds that there should
be more cross-industry collaboration
to make current charging stations
more accessible for drivers: “The
answer to this is a fully interoperable,
peer-to-peer roaming solution and
charging stations that are designed
with integrated contactless payments
and ease of use in mind.”
All this facilitates a speedier adoption of
EVs, but other European countries such as
Norway have gone a slightly diff erent route,
27cm
The gap between
a vehicle and the road
surface that still allows
for inductive charging
1
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