The Green Party has said the Government’s announcement of 1,000 new electric vehicle charge points is not ambitious.

“The plans announced today by the Government, for 1,000 new electric vehicle charge points, is a welcome, small step in the right direction, but it simply isn’t ambitious enough,” the party’s transport spokesperson, Patrick Costello, said.

“The decision to mandate county councils to provide these points, but to only provide 75% of the funding, is going to seriously hamper the rollout. It is an example of the Government setting up councils to fail and getting themselves off the hook for this failure.

“If we look to other countries around Europe, you realise that adding 1,000 charge points is far below what is needed. If we look at Norway, they already have 12,000 charge points. The Government need to aim for the provision of 10,000 charge points.

“We also need to be creative in our ambition. Where these points are is also vitally important: if we focus on off-street charge point, we can preserve the streets for walking, cycling, and public transport. We should be looking at putting charge points in petrol stations and in places like supermarket car parks.”

“We need a strategy to make that happen and we have suggested making one in ten spaces in supermarket car parks charge points. This would massively expand the provision of charge points nationally. Electric cars are only one part of the solution.

“Ultimately, this plan shows a lack of forethought for the infrastructure we need and a lack of ambition in meeting our climate targets.”