Millions of motorists across the UK could be left behind in the transition to electric cars as stark new data exposes the EV charger postcode lottery.
Fresh research shows that one London borough has more electric car chargers than all of the North of England’s largest cities, amid fears drivers could be left behind in the switch to cleaner vehicles.
Westminster has more electric vehicle chargers installed than Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle combined.
The combined population of the five largest northern cities equals 2.7 million, despite there being just 2,385 chargers between them.
In comparison, there are 2,746 chargers in Westminster alone, with Coventry, a city with just 350,000 residents, having 2,578 charging devices.
Ginny Buckley, chief executive of Electrifying.com, which analysed the data, said the scale of disparity in the number of chargers around the UK was “impossible to ignore”.
She added: “Coventry has over 750 chargers per 100,000 people, every one of the Northern Five has fewer than 100, and Westminster tops the chart with more than 1,300 per 100,000.
“Not a single area in the top ten is in the North [of England], Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.”
New research shows a stark divide between the number of EV chargers around the UK
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GETTY/PA
In total, there are 86,798 charging devices across the UK, with more than 121,000 connectors, although the North-South divide shows a clear division in the number of chargers outside of London and the South of England.
Previous research from Electrifying.com found that 60 per cent of drivers said they believe that the current public charging infrastructure is “unreliable”.
Shockingly, only six per cent of the 11,000 motorists surveyed agreed that there are enough public chargers in the UK.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves recently announced a further £200million boost for the installation of more EV chargers, as well as £1.3billion for the Electric Car Grant.
Ms Buckley said local authorities needed to be more consistent when installing EV chargers. She acknowledged that some councils were successful in introducing charging gullies, while others “can’t get schemes off the ground”.
“We urgently need a joined-up, national approach that gives local authorities the guidance, expertise and confidence to install the right chargers in the right places,” the expert noted. She added that it would be “impossible” for some people to make the switch to EVs without changes.
John Lewis, CEO of char.gy, said Coventry was a good example of a local authority taking matters into their own hands when installing EV chargers through “capable and committed” partners and projects.
He continued, saying: “Many other areas want to deliver the same, but they’re held back by a variety of factors, such as planning and grid capacity. Funding matters, but it doesn’t fix these bottlenecks.
“If we want to end the postcode lottery, we need to give every council what Coventry already has: the confidence and capacity to get chargers in the ground quickly and in the right places.”
In addition to investment, Labour has taken steps to streamline the process of installing public, home and workplace chargers in recent months.
Earlier this year, it cut red tape on companies needing to apply for planning permission when installing public chargers in a major victory for chargepoint operators looking to expand the network.
Councils also now have the power to give the green light to pavement charging gullies, which make it easier for motorists to charge their vehicles if they don’t have a driveway or access to a community charger.