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Ian McKee

@ianmck.ee
652 followers 493 following 474 posts

Climate and electrifying stuff. Head of Communications at ChargeUK, the voice of the EV charging industry. Muso. Cyclist. Runner. Wiltshire dweller. He/him. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿/🇲🇽

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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 13h
Important to note if you see any of the auto lobby's interpretation of its own figures today: We are now WELL ahead of the 2030 target. They say they that isn't being hit but that is only true if you ignore the flexibilities they were given last year putting the real target at ~24.6%.
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Reposted by Ian McKee
James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 14h
The EV market really is absolutely flying. www.businessgreen.com/news/4536682...
businessgreen.com
'Major achievement': Almost five new EVs sold in the UK every minute in September
UK car industry hails record electric vehicle sales in September, with almost 100,000 fully-electric vehicles registered
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 17h
This does rile me. Misinformation and change aversion leading to people not doing things that would actually benefit them and the climate.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 17h
The antonym to Brexit would be Brentrance, surely?
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 17h
Sorry just seen this. Not so much my specialist area which is more public charging, so don't have any insider intel. I do know that the companies trying to serve this space were up in arms when it was announced as it doesn't cover enabling works for flats so effectively was a reduction in support.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 01/10/2026
Yep, it's frustrating. Basically public EV charging is more expensive than it needs to be because there aren't enough EV drivers using it yet, the sector's building ahead of demand, so the risk is it becomes a circular problem.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 01/10/2026
Agreed. VAT is one component and as much as we’re focussing on it today it is just the most obvious inequality, shorthand for the wider cost gap. Charge point operators’ network charges are actually the biggest driver of rising public EV charging prices.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 01/10/2026
I feel guilt rather than smugness looking at where energy bills are heading this winter. I won't be using gas and thanks to my battery & solar 8p/kWh is the max I'll pay for elec into a heat pump delivering 3-400% heat efficiency. I could afford the kit, most can't. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Household energy bills forecast to see biggest rise in four years
A typical household faces an annual gas and electricity bill of £1,999 from January, based on a key forecast.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 01/10/2026
VAT drops to zero on home electricity today and just as well. However, aggravates an injustice: the driveway divide between those who can charge an EV at home and those who can't. ChargeUK & many other other great orgs have written to the PM to end it. www.chargeuk.org/post/ev-driv...
chargeuk.org
EV ‘driveway divide’ increases to £200 as home electricity VAT drops to zero
EV charging industry and driver groups united in call to end the ‘pavement tax’ as it grows to £200 following the Prime Minister’s domestic electricity VAT cut
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 29/09/2026
Agreed, WigglePig. Only makes it more urgent to address this inequality.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 28/09/2026
Seriously though we are choosing now, NOW, to constrain the supply of way cheaper to run EVs?
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 28/09/2026
Good old Grauniad’s knocked 80p off the price of diesel 😬 @theguardian.com
Breaking news notification from The Guardian saying ‘UK diesel prices hit record high at 119.18p a litre’
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 24/09/2026
Key point here. ~90% of EV drivers can charge at home today but 40% of UK households cannot charge at home. Showing clearly those households are not making the switch and that addressing cost of public EV charging is a major fairness issue.
Public charging points remain significantly more expensive than domestic rates. However, the UK government estimates that around 90% of electric car charging takes place at home.
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Reposted by Ian McKee
Carbon Brief @carbonbrief.org · 24/09/2026
NEW – Analysis: EVs are now nine times cheaper than petrol or diesel to drive in the UK ✍️ Written by @mollylempriere.carbonbrief.org 📊 Data analysis by Ho Woo Nam Read here: buff.ly/VpxOLE5
EVs are now up to nine times cheaper per mile than diesel cars. Pence per mile. A chart shows diesel highest at around 21p, petrol at 20p, EV at price cap at 7p, and EV off peak lowest at under 2.5p. Source: Carbon Brief analysis, DESNZ, Ofgem, Zapmap. - (alt text generated by Google Gemini)
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 07/09/2026
✨Bean Soup Theory✨
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 04/09/2026
Why indeed. electrek.co/2026/09/03/b...
electrek.co
BEVs outsold every powertrain in August, so why is UK trying to roll back targets?
The UK is currently considering walking back its electric car targets, but UK buyers aren't waiting and are just buying EVs en masse anyway.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 27/08/2026
Personally adding to these numbers today 🫡
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 27/08/2026
Ooh quite the climate prevention vs mitigation quandary there! I'd agree with you. But equally depressed by the number of driveways around my way with new petrol cars on them 🤦‍♂️
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 27/08/2026
Yeah exactly. Having been talking about this stuff in the hypothetical and for other people for so long I'm looking forward to living it!
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 27/08/2026
Interesting, was told by the heat pump installer that a 13.5kWh would be surplus to requirement for us. Guess we'll find out in the winter! Need to think about tariffs. I'm sticking with Good Energy for various reasons including great export rate and they have EV and heat pump tariffs.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 27/08/2026
Yup 13.5kWh of storage and EV charger going in too, which is actually the bit I'm most excited about after 5 years driving an EV without home charging (which at least meant I have plenty of hands on knowledge of the industry I work in!). Heat pump went in last week too.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 27/08/2026
Yeah it was sort of a rhetorical question as it's coincidental timing! Capacity and output you can get from plug-in is meaningful but the max is less than half what's going on my roof.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 27/08/2026
Is it silly that I'm having rooftop solar installed on my house on the exact day that plug-in solar becomes legal in the UK?
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 26/08/2026
Comms person here. You cannot conjure a good comms strategy from a leadership who have nothing to say and aren't natural communicators. Becomes much easier when they have lots to say and can do it well. Pretty obvious really!
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 26/08/2026
New rule: we don't need to listen to the opinion of anyone who calls EVs 'EV vehicles' or 'EV cars'.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 25/08/2026
Today in climate ‘pragmatism’ should mean getting of fossil fuels faster, not slower. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Climate damage would obliterate any economic benefits of new North Sea fields, analysis shows
Exclusive: Economic harm of CO2 pollution from Rosebank and Jackdaw forecast to far outweigh any boost to UK
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 23/08/2026
“Slams the breaks” suggests they were in any sort of hurry to start with. www.thetimes.com/article/359e...
thetimes.com
Jaguar Land Rover slams the brakes on all-electric Defender
With the carmaker under pressure to cut costs, and contending with the fallout from President Trump’s tariffs, the EV version of bestseller faces a two-year delay
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 21/08/2026
Angela is on to talk about the National Emergency Briefing on climate and nature and they touch on one of my favourite lines. Every transition has winners and losers, but the losers lobby harder. Rings pretty true for me right now...! #zevmandate
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 21/08/2026
So happy to hear today's episode of @ohgodwhatnow.bsky.social which is great on climate thanks to special guest Angela Francis. Frankly recent episodes have been woeful on the topic but producers have clearly responded to the feedback and got an expert. open.spotify.com/episode/4DjT...
open.spotify.com
Yes, you CAN do something about the Climate Crisis
Oh God, What Now? · Episode
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 18/08/2026
He promoted environmentalism when that was the contrarian position. Now he’s promoting pro oil and gas because that’s the contrarian position. He’s never been truly interested in the promotion of anything other than Dale Vince.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 18/08/2026
(Prepares to spend coming weeks building home automations and waffling to anyone who stands still long enough about load factors and flexibility)
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 18/08/2026
Do think working in renewables and electrification practicing what you preach is very important. People hate to be told 'do as I say not as I do' and experiencing the benefits first hand is vital in selling it to others. As long as you don't go all overbearing with it.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 18/08/2026
When I joined Bluesky a few people followed me as a heat pump 'expert' as I was on someone's starter pack. I did not, however, actually have one myself. Until today 🥳 Five months from moving in we're a gas free house. ⚡️ Solar, battery, EV charger coming next week. #ElectrifyEverything
Dark grey heat pump outside by a garage door
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 18/08/2026
As someone who's worked in comms for renewables and electrification for many years trust me we've been calling it cheap and clean. Branding is just fiddling at the edges. As someone else replied it's change aversion, which those with vested interests do their best to encourage and stimulate.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 13/08/2026
I think it's all just culture war nonsense and the widening political gap between generations, and climate policy is unfortunately part of that now.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 13/08/2026
It sums up a lot of the argument around this policy for me as it shows legacy automakers can absolutely make good EVs that sell really well. Ergo automakers saying that customers don't want EVs really mean they don't want THEIR EVs... To which the answer is 'do better then'.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 13/08/2026
Yeah and 8% of people drive a BEV in the UK, a figure which is growing all the time. 27.5% of new car sales last month were electric. People are spending their money on EVs.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 13/08/2026
You can argue it doesn't ask directly about the ZEV mandate but it's not a framed/leading question. Most people don't know what a mandate is, so we asked a reasonable approximation in universal language.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 13/08/2026
Agreed. Often feel like I'm going mad that everyone else seems OK walking around a town or city centre with air filled with petrol fumes. We've been conditioned to accept this deeply harmful thing as normal.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 13/08/2026
Unfortunately it is pretty partisan, the support varies quite significantly depending on how you voted in 2024. We didn't publish this but even the split by whether you voted for Brexit or not is crazy... BUT what is universal is when cost is addressed everyone is much more amenable.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 13/08/2026
This is the insight from the polling we commissioned I'm most struck by. Three quarters of 18-24 year olds want the EV transition to keep pace or speed up. 53% of over 65s think it should slow down. In a democracy all views matter. But climate policies affect some generations more than others.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 13/08/2026
Constantly we're told that weakening key climate policies is just 'pragmatism' and that most ordinary people don't want to rush towards net zero policies. And then when you actually ask these ordinary people it seems that's just... not at all true. www.independent.co.uk/cars/electri...
independent.co.uk
Most Brits don’t want Labour to put the brakes on the electric car switch
Only 37 per cent back slowing the EV transition, with younger people and Labour voters keenest to keep things moving, according to new poll
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 28/07/2026
Haha so... Now then Dave?
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 21/07/2026
Cliques get kicks?
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 16/07/2026
Running and a rapid transition away from fossil fuel vehicles should go hand in hand. Confuses me why every person who's ever run in a town centre or near a busy road doesn't become a clean air advocate. www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...
thetimes.com
Check pollution level before going on a run, Paula Radcliffe says
The three-time London Marathon winner suggests hitting the treadmill instead on smoggy days
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 15/07/2026
I'd posit that 'exceptional wildfires' and 'exceptional sunshine' come off quite differently though. The thing you put the word in front of kind of matters. 'Exceptional bout of illness', 'exceptional sponge cake'.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 15/07/2026
I cared about climate change before it was cool and will continue to do so after it has ceased to be, too.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 15/07/2026
Using language like Graham there is somehow not radical and a normal thing to quote, though.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 09/07/2026
I know! Combatting the heat pump media myths used to be my job. Focussed on the EV ones these days.
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Ian McKee @ianmck.ee · 09/07/2026
Can confirm it's quite an odd day to have your heat pump survey and home heat loss assessment done. NOT LOSING MUCH HEAT TODAY IS IT.
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