Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage has said that air quality will improve with an increased EV infrastructure.

Dinenage made the comments during a visit to a Hampshire-based petrol station, which had installed an InstaVolt EV charge point.

The MP, recently named Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Care, echoes sentiments raised by Ministers Jesse Norman and Claire Perry, who recently wrote to UK councils urging them to apply for the Department for Transport’s Chargepoint Scheme, following reports that funding for thousands of electric car charge points has remained unused by councils.

Dinenage visited the Lee-on-the-Solent Service Station to ascertain how private companies are working together to speed up installations.

“We’re in a real chicken and egg situation when it comes to cleaning up the UK’s toxic air problem,” she said.

“We know that swapping older, more polluting cars for electric vehicles will help to reduce toxic air. But we can’t expect motorists to buy electric cars unless there’s the infrastructure there to charge them.”

InstaVolt has has installed two rapid chargers at Lee-on-the-Solent Service Station, and claims that it will be installing thousands of charge-points across the UK at places like gyms and council car parks.

InstaVolt’s chief executive Tim Payne said: “Sales of electric vehicles are on the rise, with record market share for plug-in cars in December.

“Caroline is absolutely right when she says we need to create a reliable charging infrastructure to encourage more people to go electric and, ultimately, help improve air quality in the UK.

"That’s why companies like ours are working day and night to install thousands of chargers all over the country.”

Dinenage added: “It’s great to see two local companies coming together to make our roads an even easier place to drive an electric vehicle.”

Pictured: (L) Caroline Dinenage MP and Tim Payne, CEO of Instavolt.

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