According to data from EV chargepoint mapping firm Zapmap, there are currently almost 1.2 million fully electric cars driving on UK roads as of July 2024, with 195,000 new battery-electric cars being sold to the end of July 2024. In July, 19% of all new car registrations were electric cars, with 27,335 new electric cars registered.
While this growth is good news for the UK’s decarbonisation goals, there are still barriers to entry for many would-be EV drivers. One of the most significant factors holding people back from making the switch is the availability – or perceived lack – of public charging points. Lloyds Banking Group’s latest Future of Transport report revealed that 52% of those considering switching to an EV chose not to over fears surrounding limited chargepoint availability.
Do we have enough chargepoints?
The UK government has set ambitious targets for chargepoint installation, aiming to have 300,000 publicly available EV chargepoints by the end of 2030. However, installation pace remains sluggish and the chances of hitting this target become less likely by the day – data from research firm Cornwall Insight has revealed that in order to meet the 2030 target, the UK must install an average of 2,800 chargers each month – more than double the current rate.
Zapmap data shows that there are currently 66,779 public EV chargepoints available across the UK, spread across 34,570 charging locations – a 46% year on year increase. With 1.2 million EV drivers on UK roads, this works out to one public EV charger for approximately every 18 people – but this is not spread evenly around the country.
Postcode lottery
As with many things, access to EV chargepoints can vary wildly depending on where you live. Rural areas often have little to no access to public chargepoints, and the more densely populated cities often have too many EV drivers for the available chargepoints.
Unsurprisingly, Greater London has by far the most publicly available chargepoints out of any UK region; Zapmap data reveals that 21,065 of the nation’s EV chargers are located in the capital. Despite its size, Scotland has only 5,810 chargepoints across the entire nation, although this number dwarfs that of Northern Ireland, which has just 622 devices for Northern Irish EV drivers.
Despite its large population, there is a high public charger availability per capita in several London Boroughs.
According to data from chargepoint operator PodPoint, the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham ranks top in the UK for EV chargepoint availability, with 1347.6 chargers available per 100,000 people. Coming just behind is Westminster, with 1313.1 per 100,000, and the City of London, with 1021.1 per 100,000.
Outside of London, the best area in the UK for EV charger availability is Coventry, which comes in sixth place with 499 charging stations per 100,000 people.
However, it is worth noting that these figures are per number of people in the region, not per EV driver, and don’t take into account the popularity of EVs in any given region; some of the cities with the highest number of EV drivers, Portsmouth, Reading and Leeds, don’t rank highly for charger availability.
In fact, research from Aston Barclay revealed that Portsmouth had the highest discrepancy between the number of EV drivers and available rapid charging points, with just one rapid charger per 2,886 people. Southampton EV drivers face a similar discrepancy, with 2,285 people for every one rapid EV charger.
The areas lacking rapid chargepoints
Chargepoint availability alone is not the only way to examine a town or city’s EV-friendliness. Demand for fast, rapid, and ultra-rapid chargers is on the rise as many seek to speedily charge their EVs while on the go or running errands.
According to Zapmap, a “slow” charger – which includes many home EV chargers – will provide a full charge in six to twelve hours, while a 7kW fast charger will give a full charge in 4-6 hours. Rapid alternating current (AC) chargers can charge the average EV to 80% in just 20-40 minutes. Zapmap data shows that of the UK’s over 66,000 total charge devices, 13,094 are rapid or ultra-rapid, making up 19.6% of the UK’s charging infrastructure.
According to research by Independent Advisor Car Insurance, Dudley in the West Midlands provides the fastest average charge time for public chargers, with the average EV user able to charge their vehicle to full in just under two and a half hours.
Some authorities are specifically focusing attention on the rollout of rapid and ultra-rapid chargepoints, including Transport for London (TfL). In a previous Current± exclusive, Judith Hayton, strategy and planning manager at TfL, noted that while around 1,200 of London’s over 21,000 public chargepoints are rapid or ultra-rapid, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan “wants to go further by facilitating space for more rapid chargepoints” in the capital.
The best things in life are free
Another metric to measure the EV-friendliness of a town or city is by examining the number of chargepoints that are free to use for EV drivers. With 60% of respondents in Lloyds Banking Group’s Future of Transport report citing the expense of an EV as a factor preventing them from making the switch, free chargepoints could be a significant incentive to help boost EV uptake.
London is one of the worst locations for those seeking a free EV charge, with 79% of London’s public EV chargers requiring payment, according to Independent Advisor Car Insurance. Liverpool’s rate is even worse, with 81% of public EV chargers in the city requiring payment.
Meanwhile, the Midlands stands out again as a beacon of EV incentives. Dudley’s EV drivers could save serious cash by charging in public, as 98% of its public chargers are free to use, a percentage matched by Nottingham and Bedford. Milton Keynes also offers 97% of its public EV chargepoints for free.
The road ahead
While it is hard to define an exact “best” or “worst” place to be an EV driver with so many different metrics to examine, it’s clear that there are significant discrepancies between the EV driving experience based on location across the UK.
Lloyds Banking Group’s Future of Transport report asked its respondents what they believed policymakers could do to encourage EV adoption, and chargepoint availability was clearly on a lot of minds: 41% said that policymakers should invest more in public chargepoints, with another 37% asking for more investment in on-road home charging points.
In order to make EV driving attractive to all, not just those in major urban hubs, policymakers must incentivise EV ownership by providing affordable, fast charging in significant numbers and publicising the availability of chargepoints to ensure that would-be EV owners know exactly what they are able to access.
