6. How is the Welsh Government supporting individuals to drive greener vehicles? OQ57872

We're investing in rolling out publicly accessible charge points to support the switch to electric vehicles in line with our EV charging strategy. We're also mapping plans with industry to transition to zero-emission buses, piloting taxi and private hire vehicle schemes, piloting e-bike schemes and investing in zero-emission car clubs.

E-car sales are steadily increasing across the UK, as car manufactures perfectly promote the benefits of ditching diesel and petrol. On the continent, Germany doubled incentives for EVs in 2020, offering a €3,000 bonus for fully electrical vehicles and €2,250—Euros I might add—towards hybrids, as well as a 10-year tax exemption and lower VAT rates. France has also joined the list of European countries to provide EV incentives, offering national producers such as Renault a support package to encourage greater EV production. The French Government is also offering consumers carbon dioxide-related tax exemptions and subsidies of up to €7,000 and a scrappage scheme for old, traditionally fuelled cars. Will the Minister back calls for such a scrappage scheme to take place here in Wales, and will you subsequently work with EV companies so that they might move their production operations here so that we can energise highly skilled green sector jobs and promote Wales as a global green market leader and industry? 

Well, we did publish an action plan in October last year, and I'm pleased that, last Friday, the UK Government eventually published its long-awaited EV charging strategy. That set a target for a tenfold increase in public charging across the UK by 2030, so we welcome that. The UK Government holds mainly the levers on this, and we are supporting local authorities to apply for the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles fund for public charging. Now, unfortunately, the Member's own authority of Conwy has failed to engage with this fund, but we will pursue this further, because there's an opportunity for her constituents to benefit from this. And, indeed, when I was looking to drive to Llandudno myself recently in an EV, I could find very few sites on the Zap-Map app, so I do hope she'll persuade her own authority, which I believe she's still a member of, or until last week—[Interruption.] Until last week, apologies. So, it's—

Point of order—

No, you don't need to make a point of order. I don't think Janet Finch-Saunders is a councillor any longer.

No, indeed, until last week. Forgive me, Llywydd, I keep hearing her declarations of interest in my head, so it stuck.

We have funded a green taxi pilot in Denbighshire, in Pembrokeshire and in Cardiff to 'try before you buy' and we've installed rapid chargers in those areas, and we're planning rapid charging points on the strategic road network this year, as well as, as I mentioned, the electric bike pilot project, one of which is in Rhyl, and I was very pleased to take part in myself, which is an excellent project with great enthusiasm.

On her point on scrappage schemes, it's an interesting point and one we've got an open mind about. I think this is best done at a UK level. There is a risk here, I think, because most people are not going to be able to afford electric cars for some time, until a robust second-hand car market emerges. We see around a quarter of households without access to any car at all, and there's a judgment for us of where we put scarce resources. Do we do it in serving people who already have access to cars to give them a nice green car, or do we do it to improve public transport, to give people on low incomes who don't have access to transport to have that? So, that is the dilemma for us. There's a very interesting scheme in Birmingham as part of their clean air zone, which I know you oppose, looking at a scrappage scheme to incentivise people to drive into the city centre in clean vehicles. So, I think there's an ongoing debate for us all to have about the right balance to reach these necessary targets.