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12 | NOVEMBER 2020 | UTILITY WEEK Build Back Better Analysis Getting into gear There's no shortage of ideas and innovation for transitioning to low carbon vehicles. But can we move fast enough, asks Denise Chevin? I f government brings the ban of petrol and diesel cars forward to 2030, as is being widely trailed, it would certainly get the seal of approval from corporates in the energy sector. Scottish Power, SSE, and Centrica are just three organisations that have been pressing for an acceleration of the deadline as a means of stimulating the green economy and facilitating the zero carbon transition. In February 2020 the government said the ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans and, crucially, hybrid vehicles, would be brought forward from 2040 to 2035 at the latest. The 2040 date introduced in 2017 was criticised as cutting it close to guarantee all combustible engines cars were off the road by 2050. But if the decision was made to end the sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030, that would put the UK ahead of France, which has a 2040 deadline, and in line with Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands. Nor- way will bring in a ban in 2025. While many in the sector are supporting an early ban, confident that it would send out all the right signals and, with the right incen- tives, would focus effort and investment, no- one believes it will be easy. What makes the low carbon transport transition particularly difficult is that there really is no silver bul- let. All the constituent parts are interdepend- ent and need to be developed in parallel. As Philip New, chief executive of the Energy Sys- tems Catapult and chair of the government- backed EV Energy Taskforce, remarks: "It has implications for the future design of electric- ity markets and the upstream capacity that will need to be put in." It's also the proverbial chicken and egg. Consumers and manufacturers need infra- structure to be put in place to overcome con- sumer range anxiety; infrastructure investors want to see more affordable cars from manu- facturers and greater appetite from consum- ers. That's at the very basic level. To bring those into equilibrium requires massive tech- nology investment along with manufactur- ers to put in place new supply chains, and some say, greater financial incentives to get consumers fired up. On the other side, we need more charging infrastructure, which requires greater connection capacity from the networks, balanced with more flexibil- ity including more mega-battery storage and vehicle-to-grid charging capability (at the moment it's very expensive and not neces- sarily a commercial proposition), and more on-street parking to allow owners to charge cars overnight, since many car owners have no access to a driveway. "Regulation should encourage investment – but there needs to be the right investment at the right time." Vincent de Rul, director of EV Solutions, EDF "It definitely feels like the government response has been positive since the report was launched and there's a lot of good work underway." Philip New, chief executive of the Energy Systems Catapult "It's such a complicated matrix of things that all need to be resolved, and that also requires money." Paul Dight, partner at Addleshaw God dard and leader of the firm's EV and renew ables group

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