VAT reform will accelerate the EV transition

Be.EV’s Asif Ghafoor welcomes the prospect of tax harmonisation for public and at-home charging

Transport secretary Louise Haigh has promised to address the different levels of VAT. This is welcome news. It’s about time that the difference in VAT between public and off-street charging is addressed.

Some 6.6 million houses in the UK don’t have access to driveways – why is it that they have to pay substantially more for EV charging than those with the luxury of space on their properties?

If the government can spend £5 billion on a fuel duty freeze, it can surely afford this VAT cut. As Quentin Wilson points out, this would only cost about £40m, and would provide a huge boost to the EV transition and to manufacturers who have made it clear they’re struggling to meet the ZEV mandate.

This would be a great short-term move, but in the long-term we need policy reform as well. There needs to be serious energy market reform – we currently pay among the highest prices for our energy in Europe as we’re pegged to high, unpredictable gas prices. This archaic system is making everything more expensive for us all, and with new waves of renewable energy projects coming online – it's time for change.

District Network Operators (DNOs) also take far too long to approve new projects. We’ve had cases before where it’s taken us 18 months from first contact to actually getting chargers in the ground – this cost and delay ultimately adds to the price of charging for everyone. The red tape needs to be cut and they need more resources to speed this up.

Asif Ghafoor is CEO of Be.EV