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From June 15th, new rules will come into effect mandating new homes and commercial buildings such as offices and supermarkets to be constructed with EV chargers in place.
The new rules aim to make it easier for people to charge their electric vehicles either at home, work or while out shopping to encourage more to make the switch before fossil fuel car sales are phased out.
The changes are expected to help cut the carbon footprint of new homes by up to a third, with properties undergoing major renovation also affected by the new requirements. The scheme forms part of the government’s changes to Building Regulations that will also make it easier to retrofit homes with improved insulation and install solar panels.
The new mandate for EV chargers will be welcome to news to the many electric car drivers in Stockport: the borough is a hotspot for the registration of new EVs; however, Transport for the North recently revealed that Stockport a neighbouring local authorities were some of the worst areas for public EV charger access.
The expansion of EV chargers included with new homes also raises the potential for peer-to-peer or community charging, where homeowners can rent out their private charger points to other drivers.
Joel Teague, CEO of community charging provider Co Charger, who is on the Electric Vehicles forum of the Renewable Energy Association, commented:
“[T]here are 14 million people in the UK who live in flats and terraces many of whom are desperate to get out of their fossil fuel vehicles but don’t have access to a charger of their own or accessible and reliable public ones.
“We need to take the emphasis off just purchasing more public chargers, which are expensive to install and maintain and make the most of home driveway chargers via neighbourhood charger sharing.
“It’s hoped that the new rules about EV chargers in new build homes will lead to the installation of an additional 145,000 charge points every year. If just 10% of these were rented out to neighbours that would mean an additional 14,500 charge points annually – without any additional holes being dug in the road or public money spent.”