TfL funded EV charging points should stop ripping off users says Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon

Transport for London (TfL) funded rapid electric charging points need to be better run and should stop ripping off owners of electric vehicles, is the clear message that has been sent to the Mayor of London by Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon.

At Mayor’s Question Time Caroline Pidgeon highlighted how at the Copper Box Area in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park a TfL funded rapid charging point requires people to pay £45 to use the car park where the rapid charging points is located.

Caroline also highlighted the high price of electricity facing drivers of electric taxis at Heathrow, with the airport now charging so much for electricity that the cost exceeds filling up with petrol or diesel. The rapid charging points at Heathrow for taxis have been part funded by TfL.

Caroline Pidgeon drew further attention to the real need for a steep increase in rapid charging points, with the Mayor’s own research showing that 4,100 rapid charging points will be needed in London by 2025. Yet even this substantial increase also certainly underestimates the real need, as last year saw a rise in sales of electric vehicles in the UK of 144 per cent.

In responding to the Assembly Member, the Mayor admitted that changes were needed and that the long term pricing of electricity at rapid charging points should be reviewed.   

Highlighting why these changes are so necessary, Caroline Pidgeon said:

”With last year’s dramatic increase in the sale of electric vehicles there is a real chance that 2020 will be the year that electric vehicles spark into life.

”However the upward growth in the adoption of electric cars, taxis and vans will only happen if there is an adequate network of rapid charging points and an end to drivers being ripped off at these charging points.”

Image credit: LEVC