Are we running before we can walk with electric city plans?

Are we running before we can walk?

Our front page this week reports on the reaction to the announcement by transport secretary Louise Haigh that Oxford is “well on its way to becoming the first all-electric city in the country”.

This sounds great. Oxford has been at the forefront of rolling out electric buses across the city.

Oxford Bus Company now has 104 electric buses in its fleet and Stagecoach is in the process of rolling out 55, providing the city with one of the largest all-electric bus fleets in the UK.

However, Oxford East MP Anneliese Dodds raises an important point.

While the politician welcomed the news that Oxford could become the first city to turn electric, she did sound a word of caution in saying more work needs to be done. 

She referred to the costs involved in switching to electric. She said the change needs to be both affordable and convenient, which are valid points. 

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Electric buses are a great start, but more infrastructure has to be in place before electric cars are more mainstream. 

There just aren’t enough public EV charging points across the country. This is being addressed, but it’s going to take time. 

In Banbury, Instavolt built a large EV charging station close to the motorway and they have another, larger example currently under construction near the bottom of the A34, just north of Winchester. 

There is also the cost of buying an electric car in the first place. As they are so new, it’s rare to find a cheap second hand electric car on the market. 

A quick search on AutoTrader finds just one car, from 2011, listed for less than £1,000. Again, it will take time for the cost of electric cars to come down, but they will eventually. 

Until that happens, it’s positive that the government is focusing on public transport, as that can be changed quickly. 

Andrew Carter, chief executive of independent think tank Centre for Cities, said: “Local authorities’ decisions have a big impact on this.

“They must use the powers they have – like bus franchising – to help people choose public transport, by making it cheaper, more reliable and convenient.”

So a good start in making Oxford the UK’s first electric city, but there is more to be done.