According to a new investigation, fewer than half of all commuter car parks in Britain have an electric vehicle charging points.
Only 44 per cent of all popular train stations, large business parks and park & ride locations in major cities were found to offer charging facilities, in the latest damning report on the nation’s lacking public infrastructure.
The research showed that of the 12,000 parking spaces checked , less than one per cent had an EV chargepoint.
Electric Car Scheme carried out the investigation in its inaugural Commuter Car Park Report, adding to the number of research conducted showing the UK’s desperate need for more to be done to help motorists make the switch to electric vehicles, ahead of the 2030 ban on sales of petrol and diesel cars.
With over a third of properties in the UK not having off-street parking, millions of future drivers will depend on being able to charge their cars at public devices.
However, this latest report proves that boosting batteries while at work or travelling into cities isn’t currently a viable option.
There’s fewer than 36,000 public charging devices currently in Britain, the Government is facing intensifying pressure to provide funding and support for local authorities to install thousands more.
It has been pledged by MPs that the UK will have 300,000 public charging points in place and usable by 2030, but currently only around 875 a month are being added to the infrastructure.
The Government needs to increase the average rate of device installations to 3,015 per month if its to meet its ambitious targets by the end of this decade. That’s a monumental uplift of 245 per cent.
According to the Electric Car Scheme’s research, commuter car parks in Scotland offered more charging points to EV owners than those in England, with 60 per cent of sites in Scotland having at least one device, compared to 44 per cent in England and just 25 per cent in Wales.
This mirrors the overall statistics for chargepoint availability in the UK, with Scotland enjoying 60 charge points per 100,000 people – well above England’s 53.
However, a two-month BBC investigation found that a quarter of chargepoints in Scotland were faulty, with EV owners unable to use them.
Co-founder of the Electric Car Scheme, Thom Groot, said the infrastructure needed to move much faster in order to meet the UK’s net zero goals.
“It’s worrying that only one per cent of public car spaces in commuter belts offer charging points, when currently 16 per cent of new cars sold are electric,’ he said.
“Fossil fuel car infrastructure has had a century-long head-start, so we need everyone to pitch in to help make the switch as smooth as possible.
“People who run park & ride stations or business parks should consider introducing new charging infrastructure.
“And the Government should move urgently to extend the tax benefit that currently makes leasing new electric cars attractive for employees – which is currently set to run out in 2025.
“Germany has guaranteed its similar rate until 2030, giving those signing up for multi-year leases a lot more certainty as they are the first into the water while infrastructure is not fully up and running. Why can’t the UK do the same or better?”
A week ago, Zap-Map published results of its annual charging networks satisfaction survey – the biggest and most informative of its kind for EV drivers in the UK.
Fastned and MFG EV Power scored the joint highest scores, which was based on the feedback from 4,300 owners of battery-powered vehicles.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, it was bad news for two of the biggest oil giants, with BP and Shell – both of which recently announced soaring profits – seeing their networks slip towards the bottom of the league table.
