- Head of Sustainability Abby Chicken unpacks struggles with EV infrastructure and affordability.
- Openreach calls on government for stronger financial support.
Openreach’s Head of Sustainability Abby Chicken admitted the operator is “definitely facing challenges already” in meeting its target to fully transition it fleet of vehicles to electric by 2030, citing issues with a lack of funding, infrastructure, and supply.
As the second‑largest commercial fleet in the UK, which comes in at about 29,000 vehicles, Chicken highlighted that Openreach has deployed only 1,000 EVs, and claimed “there are just not enough vehicles available”, while noting there is a ”lot of competition for those vehicles”.
Outside of supply, she attributed the shortage to affordability issues, voicing frustration with the current grants being delivered by the UK government.
“ We need more support financially; there needs to be that government backing in subsidies and grants that makes the business case viable. ”
Chicken.
On top of pleas for stronger governmental support, Chicken outlined the need to develop further infrastructure to support the transition of its fleet. She indicated that “40% of the workforce are living in flats or do not having off-road parking”, asserting that more accessible, street-charging points are required, and called on the supply chain to keep up the pace, requesting “better availability of vehicles and everything that goes with that, like mechanics and retooling a plant”.
In terms of taking direct action to combat the issue, Openreach had little news to announce. Chicken said the operator is “installing charging points at some of our locations”, including at engineers’ homes, exchange buildings, and training centres.
On the plus side, she pointed out that the “technology is improving all the time so the range is getting better”, and conceded that, despite the issues, the “infrastructure is getting better”.
Chicken concluded the discussion by asserting that better infrastructure is key to ensuring “everyone has confidence that if they do switch to an EV that they can still do their day jobs without losing any functionality or any time”.
More difficulties could be on the horizon for EVs after British Chancellor Jeremy Hunt unveiled new tax plans for emission-free vehicles. In the latest budget, the Chancellor announced that all EVs will have to pay Vehicle Excise Duty from April 2025, a burden they had before been exempt from. The Treasury assured businesses that company car tax rates will remain lower for EVs, but they are still expected to rise each year between 2025 and 2028.
BT has pledged to become net‑zero in its own operations by the end of March 2031, and for its supply chain and customer emissions by the end of March 2041.
Rob Shuter, Chief Executive at BT Enterprise, recently took to LinkedIn to highlight that the operator was among the “first cohort for suppliers” to sign up to the UK government’s Digital Sustainability Alliance, which is aiming to drive positive environmental actions and sustainability commitments through technology.
The operator also confirmed it had signed up to a new programme with Cisco in October aimed at reducing business customers’ e-waste by recycling end-of-life equipment.
