Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on the Welsh Government’s commitment to improve the electric car infrastructure of Wales by installing much needed rapid-charging points?
We appreciate the growing demand for electric vehicle charging points across Wales. There are already around 500 publicly accessible charging points in Wales but we recognise these will need to be supplemented. In support of this, the Welsh Government is investing £2 million for additional electric charging points. Officials are currently scoping deployment, with a focus on rapid chargers.
We are working with partners to ensure this funding delivers the best value for money and accords with our wellbeing goals. 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 constraints, including grid issues, which need to be better understood in order to progress. We are considering these issues in more detail.
Officials have had preliminary discussions with local authority officers on the deployment of the £2 million. They will be following those discussions up in detail in the light of options that emerge from the strategic mapping work.