In just a few years, electric vehicles have gone from a slowly growing niche of the motoring industry to the future of personal mobility, and this growing trend has not gone unnoticed by the world of entertainment.
The growing demand for EVs has led not only to newer and more capable cars being made but also a demand for trained electricians to install EV charging stations for both residential use and as part of wider car parks and charging stations.
Rather interestingly, this has led one of the oldest radio shows still running, and the longest-running drama in the world, to explore the interesting consequences and discussions surrounding the effects of this new world on the village of Ambridge.
The Battle Of Barwick Green
First aired in 1951, The Archers is possibly the most famous long-running radio drama ever aired and the first one that comes to mind when anyone in the UK is asked about radio soap operas.
Set in the rural village of Ambridge, it is a show that seems both distinctly out of time and on the pulse of contemporary issues that face the farming world, such as several storylines about the foot-and-mouth disease epidemic in 2001, a storyline about badger culling and addiction.
It has received praise and condemnation in equal measure, and for the millions of people who regularly listen, it has become as much of a centre for discussion as similar televised soaps such as Emmerdale, Eastenders and Coronation Street.
In 2023, however, The Archers featured a storyline about an EV charging station being built in the village on land sold by David and Ruth Archer, with a notable protest, questions about civic duty and many questions about the implications of the site.
It created a controversy that sparked a protest and emphasised the importance amongst people designing and installing EV stations of being mindful of the environment around them.
This is far from the first time The Archers has covered environmental issues. The show was originally heavily controlled by the Ministry for Agriculture up until 1972 and has explored complex issues surrounding genetic modification of crops, badger culls and emergencies such as bovine tuberculosis and mad cow disease.
However, as so many of these issues are complex, it is not simply a case of a Luddite’s revolt, with explorations of the potential need for EV charging points in a future where petrol and diesel cars are either phased out completely or heavily restricted in numbers.
Rural areas often require more individual transport than the towns and cities many residents must travel to in order to get amenities not available in local village shops or that they can grow themselves.
This only applies to larger infrastructure projects, rather than the individual EV charge points that are as popular in rural areas as anywhere else, but are, if anything, more critical given the lack of routine public charging access.
Ultimately, the issue in The Archers was less about the actual station and more about a lack of consultation than any issue with EV cars in and of themselves.