Drivers call on councils to install on-street charging on more than 11,500 UK roads
Northern England worst hit
Drivers living on more than 11,500 UK residential streets have called on local authorities to install on-street electric vehicle charging points.
The pleas come as part of car maker Vauxhall’s Electric Streets of Britain campaign, designed to support UK households without access to a driveway in their transition to electric vehicles.
Some 80 per cent of EV charging done at home
According to data from the Energy Saving Trust, 80 per cent of all EV charging is performed at home – a task made easier by having a driveway or garage. However, roughly 40 per cent of UK homes do not have access to off-street parking.
As a result, Vauxhall is campaigning for ‘on-street’ charging points that can be integrated into lamp posts, kerbstones or pavements and allow drivers to charge while parked at the kerbside.
Vauxhall’s campaign has seen British motorists call for on-street charging on more than 11,500 residential roads, and the company claims a lack of on-street charging is still a barrier for the public wanting to convert to electric vehicles.
Greatest demand from Northern England
The campaign found the greatest demand for on-street charging came from northern cities, with Leeds topping the list. The second-highest level of demand came from Birmingham, while Glasgow came third. Liverpool and Bristol rounded out the top five.
But when Vauxhall quizzed local authorities about their plans for on-street charging through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, 14 of the 20 councils who have installed the most on-street chargers are in London, while 10 of the 20 councils to have seen the biggest increase in on-street charge point numbers year-on-year are also found in the capital.
Overall, the 267 local authorities that responded to Vauxhall’s requests have installed 15,000 on-street charging points on UK roads, with a further 8,000 expected to arrive in the next 12 months.
London leading the way
Of those, the London boroughs of Southwark and Barnet account for 20 per cent of all UK on-street charge points, with around 3,000 installed so far between the two authorities. Coventry is third on the list, with 1,340 on-street chargers installed – a growth of 40 per cent compared with last year – and the city has the largest number of on-street chargers outside of London.
At the opposite end of the scale, however, more than half of the authorities who responded (56.5 per cent) confirmed they do not have a published on-street residential charging strategy in place. Although that’s a 15-per-cent improvement on 2023, when 72 per cent of councils did not have a plan for on-street charging, it still suggests demand may be outstripping supply.
James Taylor, the managing director of Vauxhall, said: “On-street residential charging is critical to the adoption and acceleration of electric vehicles. Thanks to the public, we already know of over 11,000 roads where we need to install on-street chargers today to make it more convenient for electric vehicle drivers and remove a barrier for those wanting to switch to electric.”
Campaign running nationwide since 2023
Vauxhall’s Electric Streets of Britain campaign has been running since 2023, as part of a partnership with charg.y, ConnectedKerb, and Surecharge to share data with councils and help them identify the charging solutions required for residents. Vauxhall is also sharing updates with drivers to tell them how their interest is supporting charging infrastructure development in the UK.
The company has also partnered with Tesco to provide buyers of new Vauxhall electric vehicles with a year of free charging at its stores, which represent the country’s largest supermarket charging network. And the company has highlighted issues with disabled access to charging points, finding just 2.3 per cent of UK on-street charging points are adapted for disabled motorists.
Vauxhall is planning to offer a fully electric version of every model in its range by the end of this year, with new models joining the popular Corsa Electric and Mokka Electric.
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