Widening gap between public charging points and electric cars on roads

EV drivers on Britain’s roads are facing a shortage of public charging points after the gap between the two has more than doubled in parts of the UK.

Industry figures today show that there were a total of 36 electric cars on UK roads per standard public charger at the end of last year, up from 31 at the end of 2021.

But the worst area was North West England, where there were a whopping 85 electric vehicles at every charger last year – up from 49 in 2021, an increase of almost 75 per cent.

Next followed the Southwest at 78:1 and then the Southeast at 66:1, according to data compiled by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

The next worst regions were Yorkshire and the Humber at 61:1 and the East at 56:1. However, the best areas were London at 11:1, the North East at 18:1 and Wales at 19:1.

Electric drivers waited in long queues at motorway charging stations over the holiday weekend, echoing the chaos that ensued over the Christmas period.

But the clock is ticking on government plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 – and new hybrid cars will be banned by 2035.

SMMT CEO Mike Hawes warned electric vehicle (EV) drivers to expect their experience to “get worse before it gets better.”

He added that he now hears of EV drivers switching back to traditional fuels because charging infrastructure has not kept pace.

Mr. Hawes told The times: ‘Those relationships need to be improved. I used to say: ‘No one who has driven an electric car will go back to a petrol car or a diesel, because the driving experience is fantastic’.

“Now I hear people say, ‘I just can’t live with the fear of where I’m going to charge’.”

Ian Plummer, commercial director at Auto Trader, told MailOnline today: ‘The number of electric cars on UK roads is increasing and as it grows, the number of charging points just can’t keep up.

“We now have a mandate for manufacturers to sell EVs, but we may need a similar approach to delivering charging infrastructure to reassure potential switchers and ensure mass adoption of EVs.”

He said a £380m investment in charging infrastructure announced in March was “desperately needed” but “must be taken quickly to address the widening wealth gap already evident in electric vehicle ownership”.

Mr Plummer continued: ‘For people who don’t have the luxury of a driveway, electric cars feel like a distant dream, so plenty of affordable public charging points on the street are vital to the mass adoption of electric cars. charging would also be a big help.

“However, the government will have to work harder to remove all other barriers to infrastructure growth, particularly lengthy planning processes with local authorities, which do not allow services to be scaled up at the kind of accelerated pace we need.”

And RAC spokesperson for electric vehicles, Simon Williams, told MailOnline: ‘While many electric car drivers can either fully or largely charge at home, it is still vital that we have enough chargers available for those traveling outside the range of their car – as well as for the estimated third of motorists for whom parking on the street, and therefore charging, will never be an option.

“But it’s not just about enough chargers. We would like to see a major expansion of fast and ultra-fast chargers that ensure that drivers do not have to wait long to get the charge they need.”

He said RAC analysis released two weeks ago highlighted the progress the government has yet to make to meet its own target of having every service area have six high-powered chargers before the end of this year.

Mr Williams continued: ‘We understand there is a lot of complexity involved in getting the right grid connections for the fastest chargers, but this is certainly something that the Government can help expedite.

“In addition, the government has already mandated automakers to sell zero-emission vehicles, and it would make sense that this would be accompanied by targets for local authorities and charging networks to install a target number of chargers to meet demand.”

And Edmund King, president of The AA, told MailOnline: ‘There’s no doubt that to really get the electric vehicle revolution off the ground, we need more charging points on the road network.

‘However, most EV drivers do most of their charging at home at night. It’s more challenging for people who don’t park on the street, but progress is being made on community charges.

“An important necessity to convince car owners to switch to electric is having enough charging points to allay the fear that they could run out of power on longer journeys, when they go outside the local network they are familiar with.”

He said the main focus now should be to ensure the UK has the right fast chargers in the right locations and avoids any blackspots, adding that ‘great progress is being made on the motorway network’.

Mr King pointed out that availability on the motorway network is increasing, with Gridserve committing to supply at least six high-performance chargers to all Moto and Roadchef service stations on the motorway by the end of this year.

He continued: “Car owners are usually researching how they will cope if they switch to an electric vehicle and if they notice gaps in the charging infrastructure it may put them off.

And once they’ve decided to stick with petrol and diesel for their next car, they’re lost as a potential EV converter for three years or more.

That said, there are some amazing deals on near-new electric cars with less than 5,000 miles on the clock, making them cheaper than buying a brand new petrol version of the same model.

“The government and local authorities need to go a step further and provide more incentives for more charging infrastructure because, like in the Hollywood movie, ‘if you build it, they will come’.

“It is not surprising that the ratio of chargers to the number of EVs on the road has declined as sales are increasing, but what is important is that we have the right, reliable, accessible chargers in the right places.”

Mr King also pointed out that breakdowns for AA EV drivers who run out of battery have fallen dramatically in recent years and now account for just 2.2 per cent of EV breakdowns – down from 8 per cent four year ago.

A spokesperson for ChargeUK, the industry association, highlighted today that its members have invested billions of pounds in electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

He told MailOnline: “A record number of chargers were installed at the beginning of this year.

“We are working closely with government and others to remove barriers to installing new infrastructure and to ensure Britain is the best place in the world to drive and charge an electric car.”