Barely a third of municipalities have gained access to a major government fund to build electric car chargers on the street – six years after launch, analysis shows.
The Mail audit is another blow to ministers’ plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 as part of the drive to drive electric motorists. The Daily Mail calls on ministers to reconsider plans for 2030.
It turned out that only 115 councils out of 320 in the UK have been granted access to the flagship On-street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS).
Launched by the government in 2017, it provides grants to local authorities towards the cost of installing public charging points.
Another blow was that the audit found that the number installed by local authorities has dropped dramatically.
This revealed that only 115 councils out of 320 in the UK have been granted access to the flagship On-street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS)
Installations peaked in 2021, when municipalities created more than four street chargers per day (1,513 in total).
But this dropped by more than 40 percent last year to 846, or just over two a day on average.
And this year, only 28 were installed between January 1 and April 30 – one every five days.
To meet the 2030 goal of creating 125,000 residential chargers on the street, an average of about 47 would need to be built every day between now and the end of the decade.
The failure of municipalities to play a larger role in the planned electric vehicle revolution has led to a growing gap between the number of plug-in cars on the road and public charging stations. As many as 36 drivers are currently fighting for every charge point.
Municipalities are also more likely to install chargers in remote areas where it is not financially viable for private companies to do so, so that all motorists can comfortably drive electrically.
Today’s findings sparked new calls for ministers to reconsider the 2030 target, designed to boost efforts to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
Tory MP Craig Mackinlay (pictured) said: ‘This is where Net Zero’s exaggeration meets the reality of the road, and it just doesn’t work’
Tory MP Craig Mackinlay said: ‘This is where Net Zero’s exaggeration meets the reality of the road, and it just doesn’t work.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that the charging network is not being rolled out at the desired pace.
“By 2028, common sense will probably prevail and people will realize that we are far from ready for a ban on petrol and diesel, and in the meantime we will lose what is left of our very successful British motor industry.
“There is also insufficient electricity generation and the public is not warm to the limitations or the extra costs of electric vehicles. It is much better that reality now prevails and we kick this plan into the long grass.
“I rarely agree with the EU, but their proposed 2035 ban leaves the UK uniquely exposed between 2030 and 2035.”
The audit found that councils in the East Midlands have more access to the ORCS fund than any other area. Twenty-one did, followed by 19 in the South East and 16 in London. By comparison, only two did in the Northeast.
It comes after an exclusive survey for this paper found today that barely a quarter of the public agrees with the government’s 2030 deadline.
The poll, conducted by Survation, found that only 28 percent of the public think banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 is a good idea, compared to 53 percent who think it’s a bad idea.
And only 29 percent said they would confidently purchase an EV to use as their only vehicle based on current infrastructure. On the other hand, 39 percent would not be confident.
Only 21 per cent are confident that Britain will have the necessary infrastructure in place to have electric cars ready in time for 2030, while 50 per cent are not confident.
Publicly available chargers are crucial to comfortably meeting the government’s 2030 target, as an estimated 40 percent of households lack access to on-street parking, such as a private driveway.
This means that they cannot install their own plugin at home and depend on public plugins.
The government initially planned to phase out new petrol and diesel cars from 2040, but this date was brought forward by five years in February 2019 and by a further five years in November 2020
It is believed that many municipalities do not have the expertise to install chargers. But they also get bogged down by the scheduling system and problems connecting devices to the power grid, with thousands of devices in the pipeline.
Expert estimates suggest that the electricity grid will need to be upgraded at a cost of as much as £25bn to £30bn by the end of the decade to meet the additional demand for electricity.
The private sector is also installing publicly available plug-in points at a much faster rate.
At the beginning of April there were 40,150 points in the UK, when council and privately installed points are added together. It means council-installed appliances account for just over 10 percent of all appliances.
The government wants a total of at least 300,000 public chargers of all types in the UK by 2030. To achieve this goal, an average of about 110 per day would need to be built by the public and private sectors between now and the end of the decade.
But currently only about 34 are installed per day on average.
AA chairman Edmund King said: ‘One thing we have said is that more support needs to be given to councils that lack in-house expertise. That’s procrastinating. We need to pick up the pace.
“There will be some stormy deserts where local authorities and government will have to use infrastructure grants, so it is critical that local authorities pick up the pace.”
The government initially planned to phase out new petrol and diesel cars from 2040, but this date was brought forward by five years in February 2019 and by a further five years in November 2020.
All local authorities, including parish councils, have access to the ORCS fund. Grants are limited to £200,000. This is enough to build about 50 charging points.
The Ministry of Transport has been contacted for comment.
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