UK Government Announces Plans to Introduce 10,000 New Charging Points Across the Country: Is This Enough?

As electric vehicles continue to surge in popularity in the UK, the need for more and more charging points to cater to new customers rises. When you’re out and about and can’t charge your car at home, being able to charge up your electric car quickly and effortlessly is a must. To help with the accessibility of charging points in the country, the government announced plans to install another 10,000 on-street chargers in England.

Is This Enough to Deal With the Rising Demand?

According to plans, more than 1,000 chargers will be hitting the streets by the end of the year. Then, another 4,500 next year, and the remaining 4,500 in 2023 in key areas such as West Sussex, Kent, Coventry, and Cambridge.

How Many Charging Stations are There Currently?

According to EDF and Zap-Map, there are 42,000 charge point connectors across the UK for charging over 400,000 electric vehicles. Although a lot of people will charge their cars using their own charging stations, we would still hope that there would be more charging points available to EV drivers—especially considering that most of the charging points are concentrated in areas like London, not evenly distributed across the country.

Why are On-Street Charging Stations Important?

Increasing the number of charging stations is extremely important. Access to charging stations is one of the most significant barriers to switching to an all-electric car. It can be tricky to power your vehicle if you’re without a drive or garage to recharge.

More than 60% of households in cities and urban areas across the country do not have access to off-street parking. If these households have an electric car, they rely on on-street charging stations to help charge up their car – there is no option for at-home charging. However, they could charge up their EV using a workplace charge point – find out more here.

Is 10,000 New Chargers Enough?

The 10,000 new chargers is a good start to improve the charging infrastructure in the UK, but is it enough? Not really.

According to The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Britain requires 10-times as many charging points before 2030 to keep up with the growing demand for electric vehicles. The CMA conducted a study and found that some areas of the charging roll-out have gone well. However, particular areas need more work, such as motorway service stations and on-street charge points.

Get our guide to electric cars below! If you’re worried about charging, you should get your EV through our salary sacrifice scheme! If your workplace takes on 5 electric cars, we’ll get your offices a workplace charger installed for free!