I believe that electric vehicles represent a real advance in how we travel. The advent of fully automated vehicles is quite simply revolutionary. Our country must be at the forefront of these developments – part of the fourth industrial revolution which we regularly refer to in this House.
Making this prospect a reality is not without its challenges. These challenges of; convenience, travel range, and charging infrastructure. There’s also the challenge of consumer anxiety and acceptance. The advent of electric vehicles will bring necessary changes in consumer behaviour.
The advantages of electric vehicle ownership could well include fuel cost savings, the application of clean energy technology leading to lower emissions, lower maintenance cost, fewer maintenance cycles, and the avoidance of volatile fuel prices at the pump.
In my rural constituency of Stirling, and indeed for many of the members of this house who represent constituencies without significant transport infrastructure, the family car is the only way to travel to work, to get to the shops or to visit friends and family. By making the change to electric cars we are making the freedom of car ownership available without the resulting harm to the environment.
Innovative car design, alongside developments in battery technology, electrical supply and even road design are needed components to bring about this kind of change in something so integral to how we lead our lives. Because of the scale of these changes, Government must work together with the existing manufacturers and new challengers, the innovators and entrepreneurs as well as the academics. In short, we need an industrial strategy to deliver this change.
When it comes to connected and automated vehicles, the breadth of that cooperation extends across industries. It will require coordination between the vehicle manufacturers, the telecommunications industry, electrical supply, the transport system and mobility service providers.
What this Bill does is to make some of this possible. It’s the vital starting point.
For example, by allowing Government to mandate the installation of electric vehicle charging points we have an opportunity to ensure that people can use electric vehicles without the risk of them running out of power.
I would like my right honourable friend to consider and perhaps he will deal with this in the summing up, the position of rural and remote communities in this. Part of this is the ability of the Government to give help where it is needed for small rural filling stations to provide electrical supply, but part of it also must be the opportunity to look at electrical supply in places which do not currently have petrol filling stations at all.
There is no need to limit the number of charging points. In Scotland the Scottish Government made the mistake of having criteria that were too restrictive in the placement of electrical charging points. They made it difficult to access funding where there were charging points within a certain distance. I am sure my right honourable friend would want to draw on that experience to ensure that communities can access funding for infrastructure easily. We can show that this bill is not mere virtue signalling, but a real reform doing real things in the real world.
Another thing to consider is the interoperability question.
In 1846 this house passed the Gauge Act which standardised the construction of new railways at a standard width. Sometimes it takes Government action to ensure that there is standardisation. The Gauge Act means that all railways on the national network operate on a standard width. It’s hardly imaginable that we could have had a railway which operated on different gauge widths! Imagine the complexity and the waste of resources!
We will need electrical charge points to be standardised at some point in the future. Any other arrangement is inconceivable to me.
These changes about electrical and automated vehicles are about bringing our legislation up to date, to reflect the changing nature of technology and bring the benefits of new technologies to all our people. It is the work of this House to ensure that our regulatory framework remains up to date.
By setting our laws to enable our entrepreneurs and innovators we can lead this technological revolution, as much as we did in the railway boom of the 1840s. Battery Technology is key. Storing Electricity has always been a difficult thing to do efficiently. It is only through the development of new technologies in this field that electric vehicles are possible. The batteries on the new Edinburgh buses which can travel 130 miles on a single charge are the thing that makes the bus possible. Similarly, the development of light, fast charging lithium ion batteries make the smartphone possible.
The work of the national Graphene institute in development new materials for use in capacitors and batteries is bearing fruit. This material, developed for commercial use in Manchester, is an example of Britain being at the forefront of technological change.
We must persist with these technological innovations and work with academics to ensure that their work comes to practical commercial usage quickly.
There is a need for a change in the way that the National Grid delivers electricity. Homeowners will expect to be able to charge multiple vehicles from their homes and the grid will need to be equal to the job.
It is essential that the distribution grid that delivers electricity to people’s houses is viable to do this. We will also need to ensure that charging mechanisms are updated in the electricity market to allow people to take advantage of wholesale fluctuations in the electrical market. Given modern technology there is no reason for consumers not to be able to enjoy these advantages.
I imagine a time when automated smart meters allow electricity to be purchased at times when there is excess capacity to charge an electric vehicle or even a home storage device. This could be programmed to shut down simply when the prices of the electricity gets more expensive.
This would be a revolution in the way that electricity is supplied and paid for and one which I hope to return to when the house debates the second reading of the Smart Meters bill tomorrow (Tuesday).
Most importantly the Grid needs to get better at delivering electricity to remote locations. Capacity will be needed in rural areas where there is a great deal of tourism, a smarter grid will also allow remote rural areas to play their part in the generation of electricity at small and micro scale.
The future will require more electricity generation capacity and to make this green energy the construction of nuclear power plants as well as biomass, offshore wind, hydro electric and tidal power is essential.
There is more to the infrastructure than building a few charging points as we will need serious amounts of new energy production to power these cars and I’m sure the minister will want to make mention of this in his summing up.
Now if I might mention something specific about connected and automated vehicles. This really is revolutionary in terms of how we see mobility.
There are possibilities for creating more free time – currently the average driver spends the best part of two weeks of every year behind the wheel! The possibilities for using that time more usefully create compelling propositions for private individuals and for businesses. Life is too short to be sitting behind a steering wheel when you could be doing something else – something more productive or something more pleasurable!
There’s the compelling argument for improving safety. Connected and automated vehicles could be the greatest contribution to road safety since the introduction of the seatbelt. 94% of the accidents on the roads in the United Kingdom can be attributed to human error. Imagine the lives saved and the life changing injuries prevented!
And connected and automated vehicles such horizon of opportunity for everyone regardless of age or disability to be able to travel.
There are many who are visually or otherwise impaired who cannot drive a car, there are young people unable to drive. All of these people can access personal transportation in the automated car revolution ahead of us.
And on top of this automatic vehicles ca reduce emissions and ease congestion through connectivity.
KPMG have estimated that this new way of travelling could create 25,000 new manufacturing jobs and 320,000 additional new jobs. The calculate a reduction of 25,000 accidents saving to half thousand lives every single year. The estimate £51 billion of economic and social benefit by 2030.
This is visionary stuff but it doesn’t come without some real challenges. There’s the whole question of public acceptance; will we be prepared to surrender control in a car to the car itself?
Will be ready to allow cars to be occupied only by people who cannot drive them?
Will the existing infrastructure, telecommunications and the road network itself, be able to sustain this change?
Will the technology perform to the necessary high standards that we will expect it to in order to deliver on its promise?
And will we be able to create the strategy that produces a set of common standards within a consistent policy framework?
Will the technology be secure and protected against cyber threats?
Are we prepared to invest in the road infrastructure and the road management systems that we will need to have to be able to maintain the state of readiness that we will need for this technology to work to its optimum?
I sincerely hope that we will make the commitment as a nation to be the first mover into this exciting, bold and challenging future. We cannot be constrained by our fears. It was said, often attributed to the Professor of natural sciences at University College London, that “Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia”.
As a society and as a country we must positively approach this future together, unconstrained by fear. I applaud the ambition of her Majesty’s government to make our country the world leader in clean energy and in the application of clean technologies. It won’t be easy but it absolutely will be worthwhile.
I imagine a day, Mr Speaker, when visitors to my beautiful constituency can be driven in their autonomous electric car from the south, past the Braes of Doune Windfarm, the Callander Community Hydro scheme, the Killin Biomass and the Hydro Plant at Allt Coire Chaorach. They will see some of the most dramatic scenery in the country and will be doing so powered with electricity generated from Scotland’s natural bounty. They will be able to stop for a charge and bite to eat at one of my constituencies many award-winning restaurants and get charged up overnight at one of our superb hotels.
Mr Speaker I support that dream and that promise. This Bill keeps our statute book up to date and is a way of regulating a new market to ensure that consumers are protected in an environment where innovation can flourish. I am proud to support this bill.