EV chargepoints: PAS 1899 needs to become mandatory

The Motability Foundation’s Rachel Badger welcomes NAO report on public EV chargepoint provision, but wants to see action on design standards

National Audit Office has published a new report on progress with the roll-out of public chargepoints for EVs. The Motability Foundation provided evidence for this report on the current accessibility of public charging.

We are pleased to see that this excellent report from the National Audit Office recognises the real risk that the accessibility needs of disabled motorists will remain unaddressed unless further action is taken.

The BSI PAS 1899 standard, which we co-sponsored alongside UK government, provides a clear specification on the minimum requirements to improve public chargepoint accessibility. Since it was published in October 2022 we’ve been doing everything we can to promote uptake of the minimum requirements amongst chargepoint manufacturers, operators, designers, procurers and local authorities.

It has been our position for some time that the PAS 1899 standard should be made mandatory by law, and we have been advocating for this both publicly and with MPs, but ultimately it is a decision for government to take forward. We also believe that providers of public charging should also be taking responsibility for ensuring their infrastructure is accessible, so that disabled people are not left behind in the transition to electric. Making chargepoints accessible can also benefit everyone, especially older people and those with young children.

We will continue to do everything we can within our remit to improve public chargepoint accessibility, including working closely with DfT and providers of public charging to support their efforts.

The NAO report also recognises that drivers who are solely reliant on public chargepoints pay more to power their vehicle than those who have access to private charging. This has an impact on disabled people as we estimate that up to half of disabled motorists will be reliant on public EV chargepoints (that’s 1.35 million disabled motorists by 2035).

Activity undertaken by the Motability Foundation to support compliance with the PAS 1899 standard had included working with the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) to introduce accessibility questions for applications into the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) fund, and offering our endorsement to the best assessment schemes which check for compliance with PAS 1899. The latter was in response to our engagement with industry which found that providers and manufacturers wanted a way of checking if their chargepoints conformed with PAS 1899.

The Motability Foundation is also aware of industry feedback that some providers have found parts of the PAS 1899 standard difficult to comply with or understand in some circumstances. With this in mind we have again worked with OZEV to sponsor the establishment of a PAS 1899 technical working group, hosted by the BSI as referenced in the report.

The group has provided an opportunity for industry to give feedback on achieving PAS 1899 compliance and engage with disabled people on their experiences with public charging. This group is currently working through potential revisions to the standard, and an updated version of PAS 1899 is likely to be available in the first half of next year. As PAS 1899 was produced as a rapid standard the intention was always to review it following initial implementation to determine whether any changes were required once it was tested on the ground.

Rachael Badger is director of performance and innovation at the Motability Foundation