8:05 am, August 15, 2023
The vast majority of UK councils have no strategy when it comes to providing EV charging points, a new study has found.
Data collected by Vauxhall revealed that more than 70 per cent of local authorities have no official blueprint for installing chargepoints in residential areas.
The study also found that 69 per cent of councils have still not installed a single on-street vehicle charger, despite rising EV sales in both the new and used markets.
The findings form part of an investigation which saw the British manufacturer send a Freedom of Information request to 414 councils and local authorities in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Of the 298 authorities that responded, 45 per cent confirmed that they had no plans to install on-street chargers this year.
It was also found that among the remaining 55 per cent of respondents, just 14,188 charge points are planned for installation by the end of 2023.
That figure would see the UK fall woefully short of the government’s target of having 300,000 working chargers by the close of 2030.
With its 12,708 current residential chargers – on top of the 6,397 planned installations over the next year – London will soon have 19,105 on-street charge points, which is more than double the number available across all other regions of the UK combined.
James Taylor, managing director of Vauxhall, said: ‘On-street charging provision will help residents without off-street parking to conveniently charge their EVs, but the benefits extend beyond private motorists.
‘An estimated four in 10 company-owned electric vans are charged at home by employees, so the widespread availability of charge points will support businesses to go electric by helping van drivers to top up both at home and, as destination chargers, when they are attending residential jobs.”
Working alongside leading charging providers char.gy, Connected Kerb and SureCharge, Vauxhall says it has established an ‘Enablement Fund’ to help councils grasp the requirement for on-street charging.
All data was correct as of July 1.
