0 Introduction

0.1 Context for PAS 1899

Government policy and intervention is leading to an increase in uptake of electric vehicles, which necessitates a signiﬁcant network of commercially viable public electric vehicle chargepoints across the UK. With an estimated 14 million disabled people in the UK and 2.7 million predicted disabled drivers and/or passengers in ten years’ time1)[8], with this ﬁgure expected to grow further, it is essential that chargepoint deployment aligns with government policy, strategy and guidance including “Inclusive Mobility: A Guide to Best Practice on Access to Pedestrian and Transport Infrastructure”2[N1], “The Inclusive Transport Strategy: Achieving Equal Access for Disabled People”, and “Taking charge: the electric vehicle infrastructure strategy”3). Alignment with these policies and strategies will mean that all chargepoints are inclusive and accessible and can be used by all consumers, designed to relevant standards.

The policy direction for road transport has been set by UK Government with a phase out on sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans set for 2030. UK Government is committed to making the UK’s transition to zero emission road transport inclusive for all, and policy developments focused on improving the consumer experience of using public chargepoints4)[9] and setting accessibility standards for public chargepoints5)[10] are contributing to this vision.

There is a growing suite of research focused on ensuring accessibility of chargepoints for disabled people. Major market and industry players, charities, research institutions, public sector bodies and distribution network operators, amongst others, have undertaken research efforts that highlight the additional barriers faced by disabled people in their use of chargepoints. The resolution of these barriers can also contribute to accessibility and inclusivity for other groups of consumers, including older people, and ensure that the requirements of a diverse range of disabled people are considered6).

NOTE 1 ”Accessibility” is considered in relation to users, drivers and passengers, and others nearby, and in relation to disabled people, people of other protected characteristic groups, and including, older people and those with children, thereby making chargepoints inclusively designed for a general population as well as for disabled drivers.

The UK Government’s policy developments, combined with this suite of research, have highlighted strong industry appetite to understand and address accessibility of public chargepoints. Whilst a majority of current electric vehicle charging occurs in private locations such as households with off-street parking, research has shown that up to half of disabled people in the UK will be partially or wholly reliant on public charging by 20357). This highlights a clear need to deﬁne what accessible charging comprises, and how to implement accessibility in consideration of public chargepoints.

There is notable European and international interest in addressing accessibility of chargepoints. Prior research commissioned by Motability identiﬁed an absence of common standards that address disabled people’s access when designing and installing chargepoints. Subsequently, there is growing appetite from European and international bodies to implement such standards and to ensure zero emission transport is inclusive for all.

Importantly, research undertaken in the ﬁelds of accessibility and electric vehicle charging has indicated an increased willingness of disabled people to transition to electric vehicles if charging was more accessible8). There is an opportunity to ensure that accessibility is embedded in public chargepoints during design and installation, avoiding a need to reposition, reconﬁgure or remove chargepoints that are not accessible to all users, thereby contributing to improving the commercial case for public chargepoints by avoiding the cost of retroﬁtting.

The intention of this PAS is to provide requirements and recommendations to any party involved in procuring and providing public chargepoints, including installers and manufacturers of public chargepoints, local authority planners, highways authorities, chargepoint providers, chargepoint location landowners, chargepoint owners and others who will be responsible for the locally built environment for any publicly available chargepoint in the UK. The PAS delivers on the UK Government’s commitment to develop new standards for accessible public chargepoints.

The PAS sets out the minimum speciﬁcation for an accessible public chargepoint, providing a new standard to ensure this infrastructure is accessible to users. In addition, the PAS provides best practice guidance for the provision of accessible chargepoints speciﬁcally adjacent to designated accessible parking bays. This approach supports the objective that all electric vehicle chargepoints meet certain minimum requirements for accessibility, regardless of whether the parking bay to which it is attached is a standard or designated accessible parking bay, whilst also ensuring that for those who require designated accessible parking, chargepoints installed in those designated accessible parking bays also meet their needs.

The provision of clear standards on how to install more inclusively designed chargepoints is expected to improve the experiences of disabled people using public chargepoints, and can increase public engagement and conﬁdence in the future of electric vehicle charging. The implementation of these standards in combination with the best practice guidance provided in the UK Government’s “Inclusive Mobility” [N1] has the potential to have additional beneﬁts for others in the public realm, such as pedestrians and cyclists, by maintaining accessibility in surrounding areas.

NOTE 2 This PAS is applicable to all public chargepoints, with a deﬁnition for public chargepoints provided in 0.2.6 ; however, in consideration of key differences in types of public chargepoints, some clauses are only applicable to speciﬁc types of chargepoints, and annexes provide supplementary best practice guidance for accessibility for all public chargepoints, and best practice guidance for chargepoints installed speciﬁcally adjacent to designated accessible parking bays.

NOTE 3 UK Government has announced its intention to introduce consumer experience regulations in response to known issues experienced by users of electric vehicle chargepoints [9]. The regulations announced by UK Government address ﬁve key areas of market failure:

• Minimum payment method: consumers should be able to charge their vehicle and pay with ease, using a payment method that is not speciﬁc to a brand and does not require a payee’s mobile or internet signal.
• Payment roaming: consumers should be able to access and pay at all public chargepoints easily with membership cards or smartphone apps enabling payment roaming.
• Open data: all drivers should be able to locate available and working chargepoints that suit their needs easily when they need to charge their vehicle, with openly available static and dynamic (i.e. data types that are subject to change on a regular basis such as whether the chargepoint is in use or available) data.
• Pricing transparency: consumers should be able to understand and compare pricing offers across the UK charging network, using a pence per kWh metric which is clearly displayed in advance of charging.
• Reliability: consumers should feel conﬁdent that the UK charging network is reliable and easy to use, with a 99% reliable charging network and with a free 24/7 helpline when consumers experience issues.
• The requirements within this PAS align with the announced consumer experience regulations. The consumer experience regulations are referenced where relevant throughout this PAS.

0.2 Instructions for using PAS 1899

0.2.1 General

The chargepoint landscape is inherently complex due to the range of different bodies involved in the provision and installation of public chargepoints, along with the different types and locations of public chargepoints. There is also an inherently complex range of existing guidance and standards related to the provision of public chargepoints. All requirements within this PAS have been developed using an inclusive design approach, the principles of which design for all people with different accessibility requirements including those with permanent and temporary impairments. Clause 4 provides instructions for interpreting and navigating PAS 1899; users of this PAS will also need to cross-refer to existing guidance, which has been noted in this PAS where relevant.

0.2.2 Roles and responsibilities

The provision, installation and operation of public chargepoints inherently involves many different bodies, including but not limited to:

• chargepoint designers, manufacturers and installers;
• local authority or city planners and infrastructure planners;
• chargepoint location landowners and others who are responsible for the local built environment;
• chargepoint owners;
• urban design professionals;
• distribution network operators;
• highways authorities;
• chargepoint operators; and
• end users, including both private and professional/ commercial drivers.

As such, there are roles and responsibilities for the different categories of bodies to be taken into account for accessibility of public chargepoints.

The ultimate onus of responsibility for conforming to the requirements within PAS 1899 is on the procurer of public chargepoints. The procurer can comprise a range of different bodies including the chargepoint operator, the service provider, a local authority, or other landowners or leaseholders such as a car park owner. In using this PAS, the procurer of public chargepoints is responsible for meeting the requirements within this standard, ensuring that chargepoints procured are designed to the speciﬁcations necessary for accessibility and that appropriate information provision and support is available; and for satisfying accessibility requirements related to the placement of the chargepoints and the surrounding built environment. The procurer is also responsible for complying with equality legislation and taking into account supplementary best practice accessibility guidance for all parking bays (Annex A), and for implementing best practice guidance for designated accessible parking bays (Annex B and Annex C), as outlined throughout this PAS.

Whilst the onus of responsibility for conforming to the requirements within PAS 1899 is on the procurer of public chargepoints, the requirements within PAS 1899 have impacts on other bodies involved in the provision, installation and operation of public chargepoints - for example, requirements for the physical design of a chargepoint have an impact on chargepoint designers and manufacturers. Some aspects, such as continued maintenance of public chargepoints, will require the procurer to ensure appropriate contractual agreements are in place.

Figure 1 explains the roles and responsibilities for implementing PAS 1899 broken down by clause, including the ultimate responsibility for the procurer of public chargepoints and the range of other bodies that may be involved. As shown in Figure 1, engagement and collaboration with other bodies is essential in the provision of accessible public chargepoints.

Figure 1 — Roles and responsibilities for PAS 1899

Additionally, the supplementary best practice guidance for accessibility of public chargepoints (Annex A) includes guidance for a range of other bodies involved in public chargepoint provision - whilst much of the guidance in Annex A is considered outside the direct control of the procurer of public chargepoints, the procurer of public chargepoints should nevertheless ensure that this guidance is implemented by engaging with other bodies involved in the installation process. Annex D covers requirements related to wireless/ inductive chargepoints.

In order to assist the procurer of public chargepoints in understanding the implementation of the requirements within this PAS, Annex E provides a checklist which covers each of the individual requirements included within this PAS.

NOTE This PAS is applicable to all public chargepoints, with a deﬁnition for public chargepoints provided in 0.2.6 ; however, the PAS can also be used to improve the accessibility of chargepoints not covered by the deﬁnition provided in 0.2.6 .

0.2.3 Provision of minimum requirements for accessibility for all public chargepoints and best practice accessibility guidance for chargepoints installed adjacent to designated accessible parking bays

The aim of this PAS is to specify minimum requirements for accessibility for all public chargepoints whilst also providing supplementary best practice guidance for all public chargepoints as well as best practice guidance for chargepoints installed speciﬁcally adjacent to designated accessible parking bays. The PAS therefore has three main focus areas:

• core standard for minimum requirements for accessibility for all public chargepoints (Clauses 4-8);
• supplementary best practice accessibility guidance for all public chargepoints (Annex A); and
• best practice accessibility guidance for chargepoints installed adjacent to designated accessible parking bays (Annex B and Annex C).

In order to cater for these different focus areas, the PAS is necessarily divided into normative clauses to address minimum accessibility for all public chargepoints, and informative annexes to address the supplementary best practice guidance for all public chargepoints and the guidance for chargepoints installed speciﬁcally adjacent to designated accessible parking bays. Figure 2 provides an explanation of how to navigate the structure of this PAS - as shown, for designated accessible parking bays, all requirements in Clauses 4-8 need to be followed, along with implementing the best practice guidance in Annex B or Annex C.

Figure 2 — Navigating the structure of PAS 1899

Wireless and inductive charging is addressed in Clause 4 and Annex D - similar to the diagram above, the clauses and annexes described in Figure 2 need to be implemented for wireless and inductive charging in addition to conductive charging, following the same process dependent on where the wireless charging is located.

0.2.4 Types of public chargepoints

Due to the nature of the chargepoint market, there are different types, locations and conﬁgurations of chargepoints that have differing accessibility requirements. The requirements within this PAS are applicable to all public chargepoints, but some requirements are speciﬁcally for a certain “scenario” of chargepoints, such as requirements speciﬁcally for on- or off-street parking bays, or requirements for higher-powered or lower-powered chargepoints. For the purposes of this PAS, four chargepoint scenarios are deﬁned, as outlined in Table 1.

Table 1 — Chargepoint scenarios for PAS 1899

Category	Description
Scenario A	Low-powered off-street
Scenario B	High-powered off-street
Scenario C	Low-powered on-street
Scenario D	High-powered on-street

For Table 1:

a) “Low-powered” refers to chargepoints with a power rating of 22 kW and below.
b) “High-powered” refers to chargepoints with a power rating above 22 kW.
c) “Off-street” refers to any chargepoint location that is not on the public highway, such as car parks, charging hubs and service areas.
d) “On-street” refers to any chargepoint location that is on the public highway, such as in residential areas and on high streets.

0.2.5 Chargepoint components

Public chargepoints have different chargepoint components dependent on their physical conﬁguration. These components can include:

a) cable management system;
b) charging cable;
c) charging connector;
d) connector dock or holster;
e) charging socket-outlet;
f) feeder pillar;
g) payment terminal; and
h) screen/visual interface.

Requirements within this PAS related to individual chargepoint components are only applicable if the physical conﬁguration of the chargepoint includes the component being addressed. This is also applicable to other components external to the chargepoint, for example protective bollards surrounding or adjacent to a chargepoint. For full deﬁnitions of each of the chargepoint components, see 3.9.

0.2.6 Deﬁnition of public chargepoints

This PAS speciﬁes requirements for all public chargepoints. The deﬁnition of “public chargepoint” is as outlined in the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulations 2017 (AFIR)9)[11], as follows:

A recharging or refuelling point is accessible to the public if it is—

(a) intended for use by members of the general public (including those situated in public car parks, whether or not those car parks are available only to consumers of speciﬁc goods or services); and
(b) not intended for—
1. (i) exclusive use in respect of a vehicle produced by a speciﬁc manufacturer;
2. (ii) use by persons engaged in speciﬁc occupations;
3. (iii) use by persons whilst at their place of employment (including visitors); or
4. (iv) exclusive use by occupiers of, or visitors to, residential premises.

“Recharging point” means an interface which is accessible to the public and is capable of charging one electric vehicle at a time, or exchanging a battery of one electric vehicle at a time.

Whilst at a minimum the PAS applies to chargepoints in scope of the AFIR 2017 deﬁnition, including on-street chargepoints, destination chargepoints (e.g. in supermarkets), en-route chargepoints (e.g. at motorway service areas), and chargepoint hubs, the requirements as outlined in this PAS are also relevant and useful for other categories of chargepoints, including residential (e.g. car parks for residential buildings), workplace, and semi-public (i.e. chargepoints that might be private during some times of the day whilst public at other times, with limitations or conditions applied on usage) chargepoints. It is strongly recommended that this PAS is incorporated for categories of chargepoints that fall outside the AFIR 2017 deﬁnition to ensure accessibility at a wider range of chargepoints.

0.2.7 Compliance with PAS 1899

PAS 1899 is voluntary on implementation. The PAS represents the benchmark of what can be reasonably expected for the provision of accessible public chargepoints, thereby supporting demonstration that appropriate levels of accessibility have been taken into account.

The approach to PAS uptake is not covered in this document as it is a question of policy and regulation, not of standards deﬁnition.

PAS 1899 is intended to improve accessibility of all newly installed public chargepoints as deﬁned in 0.2.6. The PAS can be used to assess the accessibility of existing public chargepoints, but as the question of PAS uptake is one of policy, this document does not address whether this PAS should apply to existing chargepoints that might need to be retroﬁtted. The PAS is applicable to public chargepoints in the UK, but the requirements may also be used to improve accessibility of public chargepoints internationally. In order to assist with complying with the requirements within this PAS, checklists of the requirements within each of the clauses in this PAS are provided in Annex E.

PAS 1899:2022

Electric vehicles - Accessible EV charging points. Specification

Current

Published:

11 Oct 2022