Policy paper

Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018 regulatory report 2022

Published 31 May 2023

Report on work undertaken under part 2 of the The Automated and Electric Vehicles Act (AEV) 2018.

Part 2 of the act provides government with powers to:

• improve the consumer charging experience
• increase provision of electric vehicle charging infrastructure
• help that infrastructure to benefit the energy system

Executive summary

The transition to zero emission vehicles will help us meet our climate change obligations. It will improve air quality in our towns and cities and support economic growth. It will put us at the forefront of the electric vehicle (EV) revolution.

The Automated and Electric Vehicle Act 2018 (‘the act’) supports the deployment of world class electric vehicle charging infrastructure right across in the UK. The powers laid out within the act allow government to regulate, if necessary, to:

• improve the consumer experience of charging infrastructure
• ensure provision at key strategic locations like motorway service areas (MSAs)
• require that chargepoints have ‘smart’ capability

In 2019, the government committed the UK to meet net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, to ensure the UK ends its contribution to climate change. Transport is now the largest sector for UK greenhouse gas emissions. Cars and vans alone represent 19% of all domestic emissions. The transition to zero-emission vehicles is therefore vital to realising our net-zero ambitions.

To achieve this, the government is taking decisive action to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans, with all vehicles required to have a significant zero-emissions capability (for example, plug-in and full hybrids) from 2030 and to be 100% zero emissions from 2035.

The Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018 contains a provision requiring the Secretary of State to produce a report outlining the work undertaken for each reporting period. The first reporting period is the period of 2 years beginning with the day the act is passed, this ran from July 2018 to July 2020. Each subsequent reporting period is 12 months after the first reporting period. A report is required after each reporting period. This report sets out the work undertaken, in the reporting period from July 2021 to July 2022, pursuant to part 2 of the Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018.

In December 2021 the Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations were made into law. These regulations came into force from 30 June 2022, except for new cybersecurity requirements which come into force from 30 December 2022. In March 2023, government published a consultation response outlining the intention to proceed with proposals to develop a competitive market for energy smart appliances and demand side response services

In March 2022 we published the government response to the Consumer experience at public electric vehicles chargepoints consultation, outlining our key policy decisions in the four areas of: payment method including roaming, open data, reliability, and pricing transparency. We plan to lay legislation in the coming months.

In May 2022 we commenced section 11 of the Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018, paving the way for legislation to mandate provision of chargepoints at motorway service areas and large fuel retailers.

Introduction

The UK has been a global front-runner in supporting provision of charging infrastructure along with private sector investment. We are now focused on developing a world-leading, robust, fair and scalable charging network covering the entire country.

Government has already spent over £2 billion to support the transition to zero emission vehicles. This funding has focused on reducing barriers to the adoption of such vehicles, including offsetting their higher upfront cost, and accelerating the rollout of chargepoint infrastructure. UK public chargepoints have more than tripled over the last four years. The accelerated rollout means that there are now over 42,250 public chargepoints and over 7,800 rapid devices installed.

The Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018 has 2 parts.

Part 1 - automated vehicles: liability of insurers etc

This part of the act sets out provisions to allow innovation and ensure future self-driving (automated) technology is invented, designed, and operated safely in the UK. These are intended to put the UK at the forefront of automated vehicle ownership and use and maintain our position as one of the best places to research and develop modern transport technologies.

Part 1 of the act applies only when a list of automated vehicles has been published by the Secretary of State. After this point, a report for part 1 must be laid before parliament no later than 2 years after the list’s publication. Such a list has not been published to date.

Part 2 - electric vehicles: charging

This part of the act provides government with new powers to improve the consumer charging experience, increase provision of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and help that infrastructure benefit the energy system.

To ensure we retain our position as a global leader in the market for electric vehicles by taking powers to expand and improve our national charging infrastructure. The main benefits of this part are to ensure we have one of the best charging networks in the world, one with convenient infrastructure that is easy to access and ready to support the mass adoption of electric vehicles.

This report will cover work undertaken relevant to part 2.

The Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018 gave the Secretary of State the power, through secondary legislation, to do the following.

Improve driver experience of electric vehicle infrastructure, by ensuring interoperability between networks, consistent technical standards, and the provision of open data on infrastructure location and availability of public chargepoints.

Prohibit the sale of chargepoints in the UK unless they meet certain requirements. This includes technical specifications to mandate ‘smart charging’, which helps enable consumers to charge their cars at different times of day, such as when renewable electricity generation is high or demand for electricity is low. These technical specifications are to:

• receive and process information
• react to this information, for example by adjusting the rate of charging or discharging
• transmit information
• monitor and record energy consumption
• comply with security regulations
• achieve energy efficiency
• to be accessed remotely

Require the provision of electric vehicle infrastructure at motorway service areas and large fuel retailers and a duty to consider making regulations upon request by an elected mayor. This is to help overcome ‘range anxiety’ and allow longer journeys.

Mandate that domestic and workplace chargepoints have ‘smart functionality’ and meet certain device-level requirements, to support the transition to a smart and flexible energy system by managing the additional electricity demand from EVs.

Work undertaken

Section 10: Public charging or refuelling points – access, standards and connection

In spring 2021 we consulted to improve the consumer experience at public chargepoints. We published the government response in March 2022 and aim to lay regulations in the coming months.

In the government response to the consumer experience at public chargepoints consultation, we set out the following policy decisions relating to section 10.

Making it easy to pay

Consumers should be able to charge their vehicle and pay with ease, as they would for any other service. We are mandating a payment method that is not specific to a brand and does not require a payee’s mobile or internet signal. This should be made available at newly installed chargepoint sites (8kW and above) with retrofitting at existing rapid sites (50 kW and above).

Roaming

Consumers should be able to access and pay across multiple chargepoint networks with a single membership card or smartphone app. Fleet managers should be able to easily aggregate bills from EV charging. We are mandating industry-led payment roaming, with enforcement to come into effect from 24 months after the legislation comes into force. We are allowing a provision for government to designate approved providers if industry does not demonstrate sufficient progress in this timeframe. We will provide information as to how operators can meet these requirements in the consumer experience technical guidance that will support these regulations.

Ensuring a reliable charging network

EV consumers should feel confident that the UK charging infrastructure is reliable and easy to use. We are mandating a 99% reliable charging requirement across the rapid network, including the strategic road network (SRN), trunk roads and motorway service areas (MSAs). We will monitor the market for improvement of reliability over the next 24 months. We will then take powers to mandate a 99% reliable charging network across the entire public UK network if progress has not been made.

Section 11: Large fuel retailers etc – provision of public charging or refuelling points

Section 11 of the Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018 was commenced in May 2022. This allows government to begin the process of laying secondary legislation to mandate provision of chargepoints at motorway service areas and large fuel retailers.

In March 2020, we published a vision for the future of the rapid charging network in England, which included ambitions for the number of ultra-rapid (150kW+) chargepoints at motorway service areas. The government is supporting motorway service area (MSA) operators and the private sector to deliver ultra-rapid open access chargepoints in England. (Open access chargepoints can be used by any plug-in vehicle.) There are already more than 400 open access rapid and ultra-rapid chargepoints at motorway service areas across England.

We intend to consult on the secondary legislation to mandate provision of chargepoints at key sites at an appropriate point in the future.

Section 12: Duty to consider making regulations under section 11(1)(a) on request by elected mayor

Section 12 requires the Secretary of State to consider making regulations imposing requirements on large fuel retailers in relation to a relevant area if the mayor for that area makes a request and certain conditions are met. One such condition is that regulations have been made under section 11(3) in relation to the meaning of ‘large fuel retailer’. At present, no such regulations have been made, therefore section 12 has not been commenced to date.

Section 13: Information for users of public charging or refuelling points

The consumer experience at public chargepoints final policy decisions relating to section 13 are as follows.

Opening up chargepoint data

All drivers should be able to locate available and working chargepoints easily when they need to charge their vehicle. We are mandating the adoption of the Open Chargepoint Interface Protocol (OCPI), which is an independent, free to use protocol which provides a simplified and standardised way for chargepoint operators to communicate data. We are mandating that all static and some dynamic data is made openly available, as specified in technical guidance. We are progressing our open data workstream to understand how we should open this data and will specify this in technical guidance.

To improve reliability across the public charging network, we are mandating that all charging networks for all public EV chargepoints have a free 24-7-hour helpline when consumers experience an issue trying to charge their EV.

Section 14: Transmission of data relating to chargepoints

The consumer experience at chargepoints open data policy decision focuses on opening public EV chargepoint data to enable consumers to easily locate the chargepoint that suits their needs. We are mandating the data standard open chargepoint interface protocol (OCPI).

Government has also committed to progressing work on private chargepoint data. This work will seek to establish whether the powers under Section 14 could be used to require the sharing of private chargepoint data with specified parties, which could include distribution network operators and the electricity system operator.

Section 15: Smart chargepoints

EV smart charging involves shifting charging to a different time of day, such as overnight when there is lower demand on the electricity system, or to times of high renewable energy generation. This can help reduce the need for costly electricity network reinforcement to meet increased demand from EVs, and offers benefits to consumers too, including savings on their energy bills.

The electric vehicle smart charging consultation proposed introducing new requirements for all private (domestic and workplace) electric vehicle chargepoints sold in Great Britain to have smart functionality and comply with minimum device-level standards, using powers under Section 15 of the Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018.

In December 2021, the Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations were made into law. These regulations came into force from 30 June 2022, except for new cybersecurity requirements which came into force on 30 December 2022.

Updated guidance to help chargepoint sellers to comply with the smart charging regulations was published in May. The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) are the regulatory body responsible for enforcing the requirements. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy previously conducted a baseline survey to inform evaluation on the impact of the smart charging regulations on the smart capabilities of chargepoints and the smart charging behaviours of EV drivers.

Next steps

Consumer experience

We published the government response to the consultation to improve the consumer experience at public chargepoints in March 2022, with parliamentary time allowing we intend to lay legislation in the coming months.

Smart charging

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero will monitor and evaluate the impact of the Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) regulations, and the market evolution. A process evaluation is currently underway, exploring the initial response from and impacts on industry and consumers. Interim impact evaluations findings are expected by 2025, and the final impact evaluation by 2027.

As set out in the government response to the smart charging consultation, a second phase of legislation will be necessary to fully mitigate the risks posed by smart charging.

These requirements go beyond the device-only powers included in the AEV Act and would be placed on entities that can control chargepoints, and other smart devices, called ‘load controllers’.

Government also intends to broaden this work to encompass other smart devices and systems, beyond EV smart chargepoints alone.

As published in the government response to the consultation for the next phase of the requirements for smart charging, government will proceed with proposals to develop a competitive market for energy smart appliances and demand side response services.