Used EVs and battery health amongst updates on Government's EV transition focus

How the Government has spent £2 billion on EV transition, its focus on used electric vehicles and enabling drivers to easily check battery health were a focus for a presentation to Fleet200 Strategy Network members. 

Following his presentation to the club in December, Abdul Chowdhury (pictured), head of vehicle policy, Office For Zero Emission Vehicles, gave an update to the May meeting. 

The Government has spent more than £2 billion in supporting the transition to zero emission vehicles. 

It’s taken a three-pronged approach: 

1. attempting to offset the higher upfront costs of electric cars and vans, with grants (still available for van, trucks, wheelchair accessible vehicles, taxis and motorcycles) and advantageous Vehicle Excise Duty rates 

2. accelerating the charge point rollout. In December, the Government opened a pilot scheme with £70 million of funding applications received so far to enable the establishment of grid connections for rapid and ultra-rapid charge points on the UK road network. This has gone hand-in-hand with a consultation on how the money should be spent. 

Additional funding is available in the local EV infrastructure fund, designed to support local authorities put in charge points for drivers without off-street parking. Funding totals £381m.

In addition, there are infrastructure grants available of up to £50,000 for staff car parks and for rented accommodation and flats there is up to £350 per charge point on offer. The same is available for small and medium businesses looking to install charge points. 

3. create a regulatory environment to support EV transition.  

This included allowing standard driving licence holders to drive electric vehicles up to 4.25 tonnes carrying goods – instead of the ICE limit of 3.5 tonnes, with the requirement for five hours training.  

Building regulations were amended to require residential and non-residential car parks of a certain size to include charge points. The Government also worked with the British Standards Institute on designing accessibility standards. Last year Chowdhury’s team helped put in place car park fire safety standards for EV charge points. 

“Obviously, petrol and diesel vehicles also have fire risks, but we have 100-years' experience of dealing with that. EV fires are an area that continues to develop. 

Finally, the regulation with the most impact, Chowdhury said, was the ZED Mandate, setting goals on the number of zero emission vehicles should sell. 

“So far, one million EVs are registered in the UK of 36 million cars and vans on the road – equating to 2.5% cars and 1.2% or 50,000, zero emission vans.” 

The number of zero emission vehicles registered increased 20% from 2022 to 2023. In Q1 2024 EV experienced the highest number of EV sales in Europe for the first time. 

“In volume terms the numbers of zero emission vehicles are rising quite significantly.” 

“There are almost 60,000 publicly available charge points, we’ve supported almost 400,000 domestic charging devices and a further 50,000 sockets in workplace car parks,” he said. 

Used electric vehicles 

Acknowledging that the transition from early to mass adoption and the fact most people’s first EV will be a used model, Chowdhury said the Government was working to ensure the used market “works just as well, if not better than the traditional petrol and diesel market”.  

First steps were the creation in 2022 of a steering group of industry and government representatives to look at core areas and issues affecting the market, such as battery health, consumer information, independent dealerships, auction houses, mechanic skills, finance and data.  

“Amongst our findings was the fact that there are equivalent finance products to ICE vehicles available in the EV market and that 22% of mechanics are qualified to work on EVs, according to the Institute of the Motor Industry.  

“There’s still lots of work to do in this area, but with EVs representing 2.5% of the vehicle parc, we are in a relatively strong place.” 

Battery health in used EVs 

Auto Trader research, Chowdhury said, showed battery health was a primary concern for people looking to buy a used EV. 

“But it shouldn’t be. EV batteries don’t degrade in the same way phones and laptop batteries do. Complex battery management systems mean an EV battery will last the lifetime of a vehicle,” Chowdhury said.  

“Most manufacturers have warranties of around eight years and 100,000 miles for batteries. And now, manufacturers who want to comply with the ZED Mandate will need to meet this standard (whichever comes first).” 

He acknowledged that, as batteries do degrade and consumers will want to check their health, the Office For Zero Emission vehicles worked with the UNECE , an international organisation that sets vehicle standards that states can then add to their own legislation.  

In the UK the office is considering standards on battery quality and making battery health “easily accessible” to EV owners via a mobile phone.  

Chowdhury said by November 2026 / November 2027 the regulations will come into effect in Europe, with the UK having to decide whether to align with EU 7 regulations at the same time. 

Van transition to EV 

Together with the driving licence changes mentioned above, the requirement for five hours additional training has been removed, together with the restriction on towing and moving goods. 

“We’re also redefining the rules’ scope from all alternatively fueled vehicles to specifically for zero emission vehicles.” 

The changes are currently going through the legal steps to become legislation. While “complicated” by July’s General Election, Chowdhury expects the changes to be legislated by the end of the year. 

The Government is also looking at MOTs, driver hours rules and speed limiters for 4.25 tonne zero emission vehicles, particularly the safety implications in collisions with vehicles of greater mass due to battery weight.  

Under MOT regulations, vehicles above 3.5 tonnes would have to go through HGV testing, incurring increased costs.  

“We are looking at options to bring these 4.25 tonne vans into alignment with 3.5 tonne CVs.” 

Government fleet commitment 

Chowdhury told the meeting the Government had an “ambitious” target to transition the UK’s fleet of almost 40,000 vehicles (including National Highways and Network Rail within the Department for Transport) to zero emission by 2027.  

Greenhouse gas emissions 

The Office For Zero Emission Vehicles looked at the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions for zero emission vehicles, compared to ICE vehicles, finding that electric cars emit only a third of the gases compared to an equivalent petrol car, even accounting for the higher carbon produced in battery manufacturing. 

“As battery technology advances, I believe EVs will only admit 20% of the emissions of an equivalent petrol car by 2050,” Chowdhury said.

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