More than two thirds of UK councils have yet to install any kerbside EV chargers, with just over six years to go until the UK government’s ban on the sale of new pure-combustion cars comes into effect.
An investigation conducted by Vauxhall found that 69% of councils do not have an on-street chargepoint, and that 71.6% lack a published strategy for on-street residential charging.
Of the councils that responded to the investigation, 45% stated they had no plans to install residential on-street chargers this year.
Data published by Zapmap and the Department for Transport (DfT) on 26 July 2023 revealed that, as of 1 July, just 34% of the UK’s 44,020 public chargepoints were designated as on-street chargers.
The Energy Saving Trust estimates that 80% of electric car charging is done from home, and a 2022 survey by Zapmap found 84% of existing EV drivers have a home charger. However, roughly 40% of UK households do not have a driveway or access to dedicated off-street parking at which they could install a private chargepoint, forcing the use of public chargepoints. This rises to 60% of households in urban areas.
From 2024, 22% of all new cars sold in the UK must be zero-emission vehicles, which will place additional pressure on the public charging infrastructure. This proportion of sales mandated will rise annually, reaching 80% in 2030 and 100% in 2035. For vans, the requirements will start at 10% in 2024 and hit 70% in 2030.
Sales of new electrically-unassisted petrol and diesel cars will be banned in 2030, while sales of new hybrids with a ‘significant zero-emission capability’ will be outlawed five years later, adding further demand on the charging infrastructure.
The Vauxhall investigation stated that 14,188 new chargers are planned for installation (across 289 councils) by the end of this year. According to Zapmap, there were 45,737 public chargers in the UK as of the end of July, so if the forecast is met, the UK will have around 60,000 public chargers at the end of this year, compared with the 37,055 devices that were installed as of 1 January 2023.