A set of new laws that should drastically improve the public charging experience in the United Kingdom is set to go into effect in the coming months after being published in draft form, British outlet Autocar writes.
The new Public Charge Point regulations will require EV charging networks to maintain a minimum reliability rate of 99 percent for their chargers. Additionally, all stalls will be required to provide real-time data on their status, while all new public chargers that are faster than 8 kilowatts will have to offer contactless payments, removing the need for a smartphone app.
Moreover, according to the legislation, charging providers will be required to allow customers to pay via a third-party provider such as Apple Pay or Google Pay, as well as clearly display the cost per kilowatt-hour either on the charger unit itself or through a separate device that can be accessed without a contract. In other words, no additional smartphone apps will be required, and no extra terms and conditions will need to be accepted.
If charging companies fail to comply with the new laws, they could be fined up to $13,000 (10,000 British pounds) for each unit that doesn’t fit within the new rules.
When the Public Charge Point legislation was announced in 2022, the government confirmed a $2.1 billion (1.6 billion British pounds) investment in 300,000 new charging stations across the island nation that will be operational by 2030, which would be five times as many fuel pumps currently in use in Britain.
Last month, over 40,000 new plug-in cars were registered in the UK, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), with 31,700 battery-electric vehicles and 12,770 plug-in hybrids getting into the hands of customers. Together, they account for a quarter of the total new car market share.
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