7. Debate on a Member's Legislative Proposal: An electric vehicle charging planning Bill

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:39 pm on 16 May 2018.

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Photo of Rhun ap Iorwerth Rhun ap Iorwerth Plaid Cymru 4:39, 16 May 2018

I don't disagree with that at any level; I think that that will be shown on the record as being a pretty good idea. But I come back to that point about the efficiency of electric vehicles in this particular issue, anyway. So, whilst we have the delays in what we'd like in terms of moving towards non-carbon electricity generation, at least EVs is a way to be more efficient.

I don't have much time, actually, to comment on individual points, other than, yes, of course we need a culture change, and yes, we need to change our attitude towards how we travel from one place to the other. I don't worry about the cost, because you buy or lease an electric car and you get the charging point for free. I mean, the cost isn't great; it's about encouraging people by making sure that it's there, initially, when they buy that house, so it makes it a no-brainer, as they might say, to make a purchase of that car instead of petrol or diesel.

I recognise fully that work is going on in Welsh Government in looking at various ways of encouraging EVs. One thing I would say is that the Government hasn't got the best track record, over the years, of being innovative in this. It's great that things are happening now, but it could've happened earlier, and that makes me think that we need all the belts and braces that we can have to make sure that good intentions from Government, now, actually do turn into concrete action on the ground. I was talking, years ago, about the potential for Wales to be leaders in EV. That seems to be a bit of a distant dream, now, we're so far behind. But, if we are playing catch-up now, let's play catch-up really, really hard. Let's make it an ambition and be ready to legislate if necessary, in addition to the use of various planning guidelines and so on, to be able to confidently say, in future, that Wales is an EV-friendly and an EV-ready country.