The vast majority of UK councils have no plans in place to help drivers charge electric cars on streets with properties lacking off-street parking.
Car maker Vauxhall contacted all 414 local authorities – of which 289 responded – and found that 72 per cent have no published strategy on how they will bolster residential charging on streets where homes don’t have driveways.
In fact, of all the councils across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, only 69 per cent have installed on-street chargers, despite there being Government funds available for them to tap into.
This is Money can exclusively reveal which councils have plans in place… and which don’t.
Does your local authority have a strategy to install on-street EV chargers on residential streets that need them? Find out in the full list of councils below
With two in five (40 per cent) households in Britain not having driveways – rising to 60 per cent in urban areas – and the Government due to ban the sales of new petrol and diesel cars in 2030, millions of motorists in the future will be reliant on a network of localised charging facilities for plug-in vehicles.
Yet 71.6 per cent of councils confirmed to Vauxhall that they had no plans to install residential on-street chargers.
This includes anything from standalone devices to converting existing lampposts into chargers.
To see if you council does – or doesn’t – have a published strategy for on-street charging investment, scroll to the bottom of this page to see the list in full.
Of the 289 councils who responded to Vauxhall, 72% said they have no published strategy on how they will bolster residential charging on streets where homes don’t have driveways
According to Zap Map, of the devices currently in situ, around a fifth (19.2% are rapid (25kW to 99kW) or ultra-rapid (100kW and over) chargers
How expensive is it to charge an EV away from home?
Currently, EV owners without off-street parking rely on charging facilities at their workplace – if available – or the existing public infrastructure of devices, which can be limited in some regions and are far more expensive to use.
As of the end of July, Government figures show there are 45,737 public electric vehicle charging devices installed across the UK.
With around 1,360,000 plug-in vehicles registered on Britain’s roads (around 840,000 battery-electric vehicles and 520,000 plug-in hybrids), it works out at one public charging location per 30 electrified cars.
According to Zap Map, of the devices currently in situ, around a fifth (19.2 per cent) are rapid (25kW to 99kW) or ultra-rapid (100kW and over) chargers.
The latest RAC Charge Watch data for April shows that the average cost to charge using a rapid charger was 69.2p per kWh, while ultra-rapid charging was at an average rate of 74.2p.
This means to charge a family EV with a 64kW battery to 80 per cent using the public network, it will cost £35.43 and £37.99 using the respective device speeds, the RAC says.
In contrast, charging at home remains ‘significantly cheaper’, even with high domestic energy prices.
An EV owner charging from zero to 100 per cent at home will pay a maximum of £19.20, based on Ofgem’s capped rates for standard variable domestic electricity tariffs.
And some energy providers also have tariffs that offer lower overnight prices to help keep down the cost of charging a car, making it far cheaper than plugging into a public device.
For this reason, the wider EV industry is calling on increased efforts to provide better solutions to those who can’t charge at home – including cutting VAT on electricity used from 20 per cent to 5 per cent, to match domestic taxation.
EV owners without off-street parking are unable to tap into cheaper domestic electricity rates
While charging at home can full replenish an EV’s batteries for just over £19, using a rapid public device costs more than £35 to get to 80% charge
Lack of council-level charging investment despite Government funding
Vauxhall found that councils currently have the intention to install only 14,188 electric vehicle charging points across the UK this year.
It says this is ‘well behind the run rate required to hit the Government’s target of having 300,000 running by the end of 2030’.
And this is despite the Government’s Office for Zero Emissions Vehicles allocating £30million of funding in 2022 to 2023 for residential charging, which has been available to local authorities for eligible projects as specified.
Funding is for up to 60 per cent of eligible capital costs and total funding provided will not exceed £7,500 per charge point unless electrical connection costs are exceptionally high. In these cases, funding up to £13,000 per charge point may be provided.
Without a boost to residential charging, Vauxhall said that ‘those without driveways risk being left behind in the journey to electric’.
With around 1,360,000 plug-in vehicles registered on Britain’s roads, there is around one public charger per 30 electrified cars in the country
In response to the exceptionally low number of councils with plans to boost residential EV charging, Vauxhall – which will offer a fully electric version of every car and van model in its line-up from 2024, and has pledged to only sell electric vehicles in the UK by 2028 – has set up the ‘Electric Streets of Britain’ programme to make sure drivers without driveways are not left behind in the transition to electric mobility.
Working alongside charging operators char.gy, Connected Kerb and SureCharge, the car maker has set up an ‘Enablement Fund’ to help councils understand the scale of on-street charging issues, and the solutions available, ahead of the Government’s planned ban on the sale of new combustion engined cars at the end of the decade.
James Taylor, managing director at Vauxhall, said: ‘Accessibility to charge points near your home is critical to the transition to electric vehicle ownership in the UK.
‘We want to galvanise the needs and interests of everyone, from the public, to the councils and the charging operators to make sure that anyone without a driveway is part of that journey.
‘We want to help educate and inform the decision-makers, and enable the installation of more chargers, more quickly.’
