Will the Cabinet Secretary outline the options and priorities for deploying the £2 million of funding which was announced to help secure a network of charging points throughout Wales in order to support the uptake of electric vehicles?
We recognise the growing demand for charging points across Wales. There are already around 500 publicly accessible charging points in Wales but these will need to be supplemented in order to meet this demand, particularly at strategic locations along our trunk road and motorway network. In recognition of the growing demand and to support the transition to electric vehicles, the £2m investment is for additional electric charging points. We are currently scoping deployment, with a focus on rapid chargers.
We are working with partners to ensure this funding delivers maximum benefits for electric car users. We will be seeking to maximise sustainable private investment for charging points to support and build on this public investment. We wish to deploy the funding as soon as possible but there are electrical grid constraints which need to be better understood in order to progress. We are considering these issues in more detail.