The government is planning to boost the electric and driverless car industry

Motorway services and large petrol retailers will be required to install ‘chargepoints’ for electric cars, under plans announced in the House of Commons by transport minister, John Hayes.

The Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill is said to increase the access and availability of chargepoints for electric cars, while also making it compulsory for chargepoints to be installed across the UK and enabling drivers of automated cars to be insured on the roads.

Automated vehicles have the potential to greatly reduce road traffic accidents - in 2016 85.9 per cent of collisions causing injury involved human error, while official research estimated that the market will be worth £50bn to the UK economy by 2035.

Transport minister, John Hayes, said: “We want the UK to be the best place in the world to do business and a leading hub for modern transport technology, which is why we are introducing [this] bill and investing more than £1.2bn in the industry.

“This bill will aid the construction of greater infrastructure to support the growing demand for automated and electric vehicles as we embrace this technology and move into the future.”

Drivers of electric vehicles should be able to locate and charge at any chargepoint, using information from sat navs or mobile apps, regardless of the vehicle’s make or model.

All chargepoints will have to be ‘smart’, which means they can interact with the grid in order to manage demand for electricity across the country.

Roads minister, Jesse Norman, commented: “Automated and electric vehicles will help improve air quality, cut congestion, boost safety and create thousands of skilled jobs.

“We have already supported the purchase of 115,000 ultra-low emission cars and there are already more than 11,500 publicly available chargepoints, but the demand continues to grow as more people purchase electric vehicles to cut fuel costs and boost the environment.”

Jesse Norman is to also announce further funding for local authorities at the Smarter Travel Conference in Milton Keynes today (October 19) to fund the installation of chargepoints in residential areas where cars are parked on the street.

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, added: “We are pleased to see the provisions of the Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill restarting their passage through the Parliamentary process.

“It is clear that government needs to do more to accelerate the take-up of electric vehicles, tackling the issues that are currently persuading motorists to stick with conventional fuels, as well as paving the way for autonomy.

“The test, though, will be how effectively those powers are exercised.”

All drivers of automated vehicles will be required to be insured and victims of collisions involving an automated vehicle are said to have quick and easy access to compensation, in line with existing insurance practices.

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