Professor Hannah Daly:

That is a very good question. We agree that electrification in rural areas is very important. Home charging is much easier in rural areas, but there is still anxiety about whether EVs are appropriate. There is a concept that people might suddenly have to jump in a car and drive to the country. People are uncomfortable with that idea. That is a normal response to a new development.

People hear negative stories about charging infrastructure not being available or being full when they need it. One potential solution to that is targeted advertising. We need to explain the benefits, especially the financial and climate benefits, of electrification. One idea is to provide targeted information to drivers to make sure that those driving longer distances understand the benefits of electrification. This could be done via the NCT. The odometer reading of a car is tracked by the NCT and it also knows the fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of a particular car make.

It could be feasible, for example, for car owners to be told in their NCT report what financial and climate benefits they would stand to gain from switching to an electric car. Very targeted information could be provided to rural car drivers. I say that in the context of the more general point about public information increasing.

I am not aware of any research about whether range anxiety is meaningful but my colleagues here would have more information on that at a European level.