As Mail reveals Westminster has more chargers than Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle COMBINED
By John Abiona City Reporter · 8 Lug 2023
‘Huge damage to the industry’
WESTMINSTER has more electric car chargers than six major cities in the North and Midlands combined.
The London borough’s 2,196 public charging points easily outnumber the 1,593 available across Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham.
The official data will reinforce fears that the switch to electric vehicles is being undermined by the uneven distribution of chargers.
Critics said the figures also showed that the policy of banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 was being devised by an ‘out-of-touch metropolitan elite’ based in a London borough with plentiful charging points.
The Mail has launched a campaign calling on ministers to rethink the target. Polling for this newspaper found that barely one in four agree with the deadline and more than half disagree with the rapid switch to electric cars.
At the start of April the UK had 40,150 public charging points for electric cars.
Zapmap, which tracks the Government’s figures, estimates this total had risen to 44,408 by the end of June. Ministers hope to install 300,000 by the end of the decade – a rate of 110 a day. The current daily average however is 34.
Only a third of councils have tapped a central fund to install on-street electric chargers despite it being launched six years ago. And there are just 154 public charging points in Newcastle, 155 in Manchester and 156 in Sheffield.
Craig Mackinlay, Tory MP for South Thanet in Kent, said the figures highlighted how unprepared Britain was for
the Government’s ban on new petrol and diesel cars.
‘These types of pie-in-the-sky policies might appeal to the out-of-touch metropolitan elite but have got no relevance in normal constituencies like mine and certainly even less so in rural places,’ he said.
‘ The roll- out of on- street charging has virtually stalled and is nowhere near the rate of ambition of the Government.
‘Electric cars’ green credentials have been now called into question, given the rare metals within them.
‘It’s rare for me to give credit to anything the European Union does but kicking off the ban out to 2035, as the EU has done, seems to be a very sensible thing to do at this time. We are in serious danger of losing a successful car industry.’
There were only 34 public chargers in Thanet at the start of April. Mr Mackinlay added: ‘There will not be a secondhand car market for electric cars because people will never buy an eight- year- old EV (electric vehicle) with the worry that you need to change a £15,000 battery.’
Motorists are being put off from buying an EV due to ‘range anxiety’ and the soaring cost of owning one, with models costing around £10,000 more than petrol equivalents.
Around 40 per cent of households are believed not to have access to off- street parking, meaning they are reliant on more costly public chargers.
VAT on electricity from public chargers is levied at 20 per cent, whereas it is only 5 per cent if you charge at home.
Tory MP Sir John Redwood said: ‘Many people will not buy electric vehicles when they have poor range and few charging points. The Government must lift its proposed ban on petrol and diesel new car sales in 2030.
‘This will do huge damage to our industry. There will be a surge of nearly new internal combustion engine car imports as people think they are better value without range anxiety.’
Ian Plummer, commercial director at Auto Trader, called for a ‘cultural shift to build charging into everyday life, so those who don’t have off-street parking or regularly drive on motorways can easily make the switch’.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders estimates that between 21 per cent and 30 per cent of cars will be pure electric by 2030.
The body’s chief executive, Mike Hawes, said: ‘Governments must provide the support and encouragement for all consumers to purchase, charge and own an EV.
‘This should be irrespective of whether they live in rural, suburban or urban areas, in a flat, detached house or terrace, everyone should have the confidence to go electric.’
Former Aston Martin boss Andy Palmer, who is interim chief executive at the electric charging provider Pod Point, said getting all drivers to make the switch required much more public infrastructure. ‘However, this also requires government to take some responsibility and support the industry to achieve this as demonstrated in many other countries including the USA,’ he added.
A spokesman for ChargeUK, the voice of the UK’s EV charging infrastructure, said: ‘There are a range of different charging options including slower onstreet chargers that are ideal for those who do not have access to off-street parking at their home up to ultra rapid chargers that can add hundreds of miles of range in the time it takes to enjoy a takeaway coffee.
‘Infrastructure will inevitably vary according to the varying needs of the drivers in different parts of the country.’
A Department for Transport spokesman said: ‘To ensure every part of the country benefits from electric vehicles, we’ve committed £381million specifically to level up local charging infrastructure across England.
‘The number of charge points continues to grow at pace right across the UK, with public charging devices in the North increasing by a third over the past year alone.’