AA’s Edmund King: We can’t expect the government to do everything, and indeed they’re not

AA president explains while the UK’s much-improved public infrastructure still needs work, how the government could do more for EV adoption, and why Britain’s all-electric automotive future appears sparkier than ever

Since the start of 2025, the United Kingdom’s EV sector has been experiencing somewhat of a purple patch.

In March this year, registrations of electric cars hit an all-time high as the new car market enjoyed its best ‘new plate’ month since 2019, with almost 70,000 EVs hitting UK roads. The figure is also a 43% increase over March 2024.

While a number of incentives have helped, including discounts from manufacturers, free electric miles thrown in with home chargers, and salary sacrifice schemes, AA president, Edmund King, feels that a large part of the nation’s positive pivot towards EVs is rooted in human psychology.

Normalisation is important

“In the early days of electric vehicles around 2010 or so, the common conception surrounding them was ‘look at that tree hugger in their Nissan Leaf’,” he tells EV Powered. “With the introduction of the green number plate in December 2020, this really helped socialise EVs.

“The green plates have worked really well, and I’m always amazed on the drive from where I live in St. Albans to the AA headquarters in Basingstoke, because I see so many of them when stuck in traffic.

“The more green plates and electric cars you see, it helps you realise that there are a lot more of them than you initially thought. That normalisation is important, because it shows that EVs are pretty good cars, and not a fringe product anymore.”

King, a lifelong car enthusiast who grew up a childhood friend of Clive Chapman, the son of Lotus founder Colin Chapman, adds that psychology has also been a driving factor behind breaking down myths behind range anxiety and concerns around the efficacy of public charging networks.

“Ultimately, we don’t need a car – whether it be EV, or petrol, or diesel – that does 500 miles or so, because most people drive a maximum of 583 miles per month,” he explains.

“The addition of sat navs and – love them or hate them – infotainment screens in most modern cars has really helped alleviate worries around the accessibility of charging networks, because these systems display nearby charging stations. Like with the green number plates, it helps people realise that there are more chargers than they may have initially thought.”

Room for improvement on public charging

As of March 2025 Zapmap found that there are now over 75,000 public EV charging stations across the UK; a 32% jump over the previous year. Yet despite the positive development made across EV charging infrastructure, King identifies EV charge points as an area for further improvement.

“If we look back just four or five years ago, charging infrastructure was pretty antiquated and often didn’t work,” he explains. “Without a doubt, things have improved drastically, but there are still some basic things charge point operators could do better.

“It’s still pretty difficult to get a receipt from some public chargers, and sometimes it’s not clear how much you’ve paid, and how you connect and disconnect your car from the charger. Then there’s the issue of whether you use your bank card before or after to make the payment.”

Alongside ironing out what have become annoying niggles – rather than points of outright exasperation – within the public charging network, King sees accessibility for disabled drivers as an area CPOs must improve, should the British government meet its objective of making all new cars sold fully-electric by 2035.

“The question of accessibility is an important one, and I have to say, I know a number of CPOs are working to address it,” he says. “For many disabled and elderly drivers, though, the charging cables are positioned too high and are far too heavy. What’s more, sometimes there isn’t enough space to get a wheelchair next to the charger.

“We need wider charging bays not just to improve accessibility, we also need them for vans and bigger vehicles to make it work. There are still definitely improvements to be made here.”

In late 2022, PAS 1899 accessibility standard was launched by the British Standards Institute to improve accessibility for EV drivers who need it. PAS 1899 set a maximum charging cable weight of 6kg.

However, PAS 1899 has not been mandated into law, meaning it remains a ‘best practice’ standard. Alongside King, industry figureheads including Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and EV CPO Pogo Charge CEO, Stuart Douglas, have also used their voices to call for better accessibility surrounding EVs.

Making the transition easier

King was an early adopter of EVs – his first was a Ford Think back in 2001 – and his household has been all-EV for four years at the time of writing, but for all of his positivity around EVs he stops short of getting evangelical about making the transition from ICE to EV.

“There’s a lot of disinformation surrounding EVs about them catching fire at random, and even silly stuff like not being able to take them through a car wash or drive them in the rain,” he says. “But beyond that, there are some legitimate concerns – only recently, I was speaking to a lady who works up in the Lake District, and drives home to Milton Keynes on a Friday night.

“She said she wouldn’t feel comfortable charging at a public charging station alone at night, and I really get that. In her case, then a really efficient diesel would be a better choice until public charging becomes more accessible, more reliable, and better lit. People are totally justified to make whatever choices they want in life.

“I don’t think we should be forcing folks into EVs at all – we have to understand that this is quite a radical shift for many people who’ve grown up with combustion-engined cars, because an EV is completely different in how it works.”

If the government is to achieve its 2035 EV goal, though, King sees it in Whitehall’s interests to “level up” and make the switch to EVs easier than it currently is.

Kier Starmer’s Labour administration has ensured that EVs are no longer road tax exempt, and introduced the ‘Expensive Car Supplement’ on vehicles – EV and ICE – over £40,000. However, in 2022, it was his Conservative predecessors under Boris Johnson who axed the plug-in car grant, which offered a cash discount on new plug-in hybrids and EVs.

“In the UK, we started out with some grants that led to a massive transformation, but the bulk of them have now been axed,” says King. “It’s been argued both ways before, but we at the AA still feel that some incentives could hurry things along.

“If you’re lucky enough to have an EV through a salary sacrifice scheme at work and you have off-street parking, it’s a no-brainer to charge overnight because it’s cheap as chips.”

For comparison, the price to use a public charger hovers around the 80p/kWh mark, while home charging can drop to as low as little as 7p depending on tariff.

“However, if you live in a flat, don’t have a home charger, and have to fork out for your own charger, then things start to get quite expensive quite quickly. In this respect, the national government needs to level up, then do local governments.”

Again, it’s the topic of public charging infrastructure King cites as both bodies’ necessary area of focus.

“Some areas of the UK are really well served in terms of charging infrastructure such as London, the south east, and various parts of the Midlands,” he explains. “Then you go to bits of the North West and North East, and you’ve got these almost charging deserts.

“It’s in these areas I think local governments could do more with by taking advantage of the Local EV Infrastructure or ‘LEVI’ support on offer. “Ultimately, however, I think it will be private capital that goes into the bulk of changes.”

“To put it into perspective, it wasn’t the government that set up the first filling station in the UK – that was the AA in 1919, so it was down to a private entity. We can’t expect the government to do everything, and indeed they’re not. There are areas, though, where they can help in terms of EV charging infrastructure, because they are leading the transition with the Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) mandate.”

While there are several areas the UK’s EV sector must address within the next 10 years, King’s overall picture appears to be one that needs minor tweaks, as opposed to a radical overhaul.

“Despite the issues facing the world today and closer to home, the cost of living crisis in the UK, the EVs we’re getting today are better than ever, as is the charging infrastructure. I’m very optimistic about the future.”