00:00Now, I want to ask you, because you say you are looking after taxpayers' money, but a
00:03discount of up to £3,700 on electric cars, the government is trying to encourage us to
00:09buy them by giving us a discount. That is going to cost hundreds of millions. Why are
00:14they doing this? Because most people don't really want an electric car. I mean, do you
00:18have an electric car? Our household car is a hybrid, but we are going to be getting an
00:24electric one next. I think we are in the same position as lots of people. If you are thinking
00:30of changing your car, maybe you would like to have an electric vehicle, you want to go
00:36green, but you are perhaps a bit worried about the upfront cost and a bit worried about whether
00:40you will be able to charge it easily and conveniently. We are determined as a government to tackle
00:47both of those things. Today's announcement of this discount of up to £3,750
00:54is about closing that affordability gap. We know at the moment, on average, it costs a bit more
01:00to buy an electric vehicle than it does to buy a petrol one, and so we want people to be able to
01:07make that greener choice, so we are helping them with the cost of it. Of course, it is great news
01:13for consumers, people who are going to buy a new electric vehicle, but it is also great news for
01:18British jobs and British manufacturing. You know how important the car manufacturing sector is to us
01:24here in the UK? It is only good Lillian if people buy them, and obviously at the moment they are not
01:32buying them, and you have got to make that attractive. I suppose it is not what you buy them for,
01:36it is your resale values, the real worry with these sort of things. I appreciate the task that you have,
01:44and I appreciate that I for instance would want to do what I would deem to be the right thing,
01:50the right thing for the environment and all that sort of thing, but I just know it wouldn't be the
01:54right thing for me, and I will not be buying it until I am forced to buy one.
02:00Well, actually, a lot of people do want to buy them. If you look at the last month, one in four
02:07new cars bought in the UK was an electric vehicle. That is up, I think, 38% increase in the first six
02:15months of this year compared with the first six months of last year, but we know that upfront cost
02:21is an issue. Obviously, when people do get an electric vehicle, they can get around for, they can save
02:28about £1,500 a year because they are very economical to run, especially if you can charge at home. You
02:35can travel for as little as 2p a mile, so you could drive from London to Birmingham for about £2.50,
02:42so it is really good value. I recognise not everybody is yet convinced, but a lot of people
02:47do want to be able to do it, and of course, we are expanding the charge point network all the time.
02:53There is a new charge point, a public charge point going in every 30 minutes now, 82,000
03:00across the country, and we are determined to make sure that that continues to ramp up so that people,
03:05when they are making that, when they are thinking, what is my next car going to be?
03:09This is unrealistic. I just want to say about the charges there, you know, great job, I applaud you for
03:13that and super duper, but the fact that there are different charges for different cars, you should hit
03:22that on the head, you should hit these manufacturers with that, it is like your mobile phone, oh I can't
03:26plug that in, I need that particular charge, I need that change, change, change. You know, it should be a universal,
03:33one charge fits all, and it isn't, so I don't envy you that task.
03:41Well, it is absolutely getting there. I am sure, like you, you will remember when people first had video
03:46recorders, and was it going to be VHS, or was it going to be Betamax, and pretty quickly it became clear
03:52that everyone was going to be VHS. And it is a bit the same with the chargers, at first there were two
03:57different sorts, now there is one that has clearly emerged as the standard charger, and that is what,
04:02I mean, that is what is rolling out across the country, and that is what new electric vehicles
04:07are going to be. So it will be a pretty much a universal thing, so people can feel confident
04:13that the charges they are going to encounter around about on the network, whether it is on the street,
04:18or at motorway service areas, is going to be the one that works for their vehicle.
04:22I just want to briefly ask you, so what about people in flats, and also the fact that there is a different
04:27sort of electric system when you are plugging in the electricity for your car from your home.
04:32So have you factored in where people who live in flats, people who do not necessarily have somewhere
04:39to park their car in their drive, that is the most of us, by the way, how are we going to charge our EVs,
04:45and can the grid honestly sustain us charging in that way?
04:52Well, that is a really important question. It is about 68% of people have got a driveway,
04:59so can charge on their drive at home. But we want everyone to have the opportunity to switch to a
05:06cleaner, greener electric vehicle. And that is why there is a grant available to people who own or
05:12rent a flat to install a charger if they have got a car parking space in the car park. But also at
05:19the weekend we announced a new grant of £25 million to enable local authorities to roll out
05:26cross-pavement solutions. So if you live in a terrace street, you maybe can park on the road
05:32outside your house, but obviously you do not want a dangerous cable trailing across the pavement.
05:37So there are these pavement gullies that allow you to run the cable through the pavement,
05:43but there is a sort of flap over the top that keeps the pavement safe for anyone walking along.
05:49The whole thing is so ridiculous, honestly. It is not even realistic. You seem to have lots of
05:54money for all these other things, but no money in real terms for really important things that the
05:58people of this country are currently suffering with. But I want to move on to this.
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