Those With Home Access To Public Chargers Still A Minority
A new interactive map of the UK shows that a large majority of UK households who do not have the ability to install a home charger but live within a five minute walk of a public charger.
Prior research from Zap Map has shown that the more chargers that are closer to where people live leads to fewer public chargers being required to serve the same amount of EVs as if the public chargers were further away. Sponsored in part by Zap Map, the map shows there is regional variation, which we will take a look at below.
London and Other Anomalies
Around 60% of households in Greater London can charge their car within a five minute walk of their homes. Given the well understood better charging infrastructure and public health-driven transport policies in the Capital, this is somewhat unsurprising.
Other smaller cities and towns that have done well are Brighton & Hove (77%), Portsmouth (59%), Watford (47%) and Coventry (45%). Among the larger metropolitan areas, coverage is nothing like London however - Glasgow has 24% coverage, Manchester, 22% and Birmingham is below the UK average at just 12%.
Rural Charging Deserts
The interactive map has shades of greens for 40%+ coverage, yellows for 20%+ coverage and reds for close to 0%. Much of the South West west of a line from Bristol and Bournemouth are oranges and reds with only Exeter, Plymouth more than 20%.
Among the worst is West Devon where just 54 of the 25,645 households in the District Council area qualify under this criteria. Considering there is an active programme called Rural Charging Devon trying to address this issue (albeit mired in controversy and inaction) this is somewhat surprising.
Wales fares worse than southern and central Scotland. This resonates with the Scottish Government taking action to attract more people away from fossil fuelled vehicles.
Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund
Announced earlier this year, the UK government has made a large pot of money available for councils across the country to install public chargers of up to 22kW called the LEVI fund. This ‘free money’ is designed to help councils install enough chargers to make the transition to EVs easier for people who do not have home car chargers.
If a household knows of a public charger within a few minutes walk of their home, they will be more likely to buy an EV. This map will show the good councils and the not so good - if you live in a not so good council area, then it might be time to tell your councillor of the free money!
