UK cities with the highest percentage of broken charging points for electric vehicles are revealed

When buying a car these days comes the additional decision of whether or not to go electric.

But if you’re looking for a charging point, it’s worth taking note of the cities in the UK that have been found to have the highest number of broken charging points preventing you from keeping your car roadworthy.

Londonderry has the highest number of broken electric car charging points, with a whopping 30 per cent of their existing chargers not working.

Closely followed is the West Midlands city of Worcester with nearly one in four (23 per cent) of their available charging points out of order.

Ipswich has the third highest number of broken chargers as 22.7 per cent of their EV charging stations are currently out of order.

Currently, there are more than 37,000 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations across the country, but the findings show that around 480,000 public charging stations will be needed to meet the ‘Road to 2030’ target.

One of the biggest problems facing the EV sector is the accessibility of charging stations across the country, putting pressure on municipalities to put chargers in the right areas and keep them working.

Supplier of solar lamps The solar center analyzed the latest data on the number of EV chargers in towns and cities across the UK to discover which locations have the highest rate of faulty electric vehicle charging points.

Newcastle and York complete the top five cities with the highest number of broken electric vehicle charging points, with 21.4 and 21.2 per cent respectively.

Currently there are an estimated 47 EV charging points per 100,000 people in the North East of England, with Yorkshire having one of the lowest numbers in the UK.

Huddersfield (21.1 per cent), Southend-on-Sea (21.1 per cent), Maidstone (19 per cent), Blackburn (18.5 per cent) and Hereford (18.2 per cent) are in the top ten.

At the other end of the spectrum, seven cities were found to have 100 per cent functioning EV chargers, including Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire and Darlington, County Durham.

All three locations have benefited from additional funding to improve their EV infrastructure.

For example, Nottinghamshire has benefited from funding from the Office of Low Emission Vehicles to expand the public EV network, while County Durham Council will receive £3.1m to install a further 150 EV charging stations across the county.

Londonderry’s top spot comes after a recent report on Northern Ireland’s attitude to electric vehicles found that 44 per cent of respondents were discouraged from buying an electric vehicle because of the need to charge it.

The Government of Northern Ireland recently announced its plans to invest £3.27 million in upgrading the EV network across the country by replacing unreliable chargers and upgrading fast chargers to fast ones.

Second, Worcester City Council has made proposals to increase the number of EV charging points with the long-term goal of developing a rollout strategy to place more public chargers in the city.

As in Worcester, Ipswich is also looking to increase the number of public charging points, particularly around borough car parks, and last year it was announced that 14 new charging points were being considered for installation

Brian Davenport, owner and co-founder of The Solar Center commented: ‘Electric cars are environmentally friendly, convenient and have lower running costs, but a lack of available chargers and inconsistency in their ability to operate can put drivers off.

“With the road to 2030 only seven years away, it is vital that municipalities are given extra budget to ensure their electric vehicle charging points are working and that they are placed in appropriate locations to encourage more motorists to switch from petrol and diesel cars to electric cars.’