The move to electric cars - 20th December 2021

Britain’s prime minister has announced a new car charging law for England. The rules will mean around 145,000 charging points are installed every year.

From 2022, any new homes or workplaces will be required to have electric car charging points. The law forms part of the UK's strategy to replace petrol and diesel cars with electric vehicles.

More people are moving over to electric cars, and sales of electric vehicles are rising. With only 25,000 charging points in Britain today, that number needs to increase rapidly.

In 2020, electric cars made up around 10 percent of new UK cars. This represented a significant jump from 2.5 percent in 2018. All UK cars sold after 2030 have to be electric.

The move to electric cars is an important element of plans to reach climate change targets. Petrol and diesel cars are a major source of greenhouse emissions. In 2019, they made up16 percent of the UK's total emissions.

The government said that the new laws will make electric charging "as easy as refuelling a petrol or diesel car today."

Environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth approved of the news. Mike Childs, one of its directors, commented that electric vehicles had a "significant role to play in building a zero-carbon future."