Review to see if car parks can cope with more electric vehicles

A review into multi-storey car parks will see if they can cope with electric vehicles on upper floors

Engineers will investigate if multi-storey car parks are strong enough to hold electric vehicles (EV) on upper floors, the government confirmed.

Importing petrol or diesel vehicles will be banned in Jersey by 2030, in line with its Carbon Neutral Roadmap.

Engineers told the States' Infrastructure Scrutiny panel that EV's could weigh up to a tonne more than cars with a combustion engine.

The review will see if the current car parks could cope.

The Head of Transport, Tristen Dodd said a report from the Institute of Structural Engineers would help guide its review, and would "apply to car parks nationwide".

The government said the car parks in the island were based on UK methodologies provided by the Institute in terms of structural design, operation and maintenance.

It said the guidance would help to understand if any changes would need to be made to Jersey's multi-storey car parks, and could not confirm when the review would be completed.

Carbon neutral

Minister for Energy and Climate Change Deputy Hilary Jeune said the government was working on an incentive scheme alongside the motor industry to subsidise islanders buying EV's in the future.

She said: "We're talking with the motor industry, we're having another workshop as we've had earlier as we were developing the carbon neutral roadmap to finalise the incentive, to talk them through the different policy measures.

"The upfront cost may be more with the electric cars and that's why we are trying to help with an incentive scheme, but if you look at the life of the investment it is much cheaper."

Peter Tabb, from the Jersey Motor Trades Federation, said the lack of details about the scheme was putting islanders off buying electric vehicles.

He said: "Effectively the sale of electric vehicles is brought, in our view, almost to a halt because customers are simply waiting to see what the States is going to do with regard to what these incentives are."

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