Installation of on-street EV chargers needs to power on, says Vauxhall

The number of on-street electric vehicle charge points has significantly increased but there is still a long way to go, says Vauxhall.

Latest Government figures show there are now 69% more on-street chargers than there was one year ago, with 18,942 now installed across the UK.

The statistics also indicate the London area has 151% more publicly available chargers of all types per 100,000 of population than Scotland, which comes second to London for the country and region in this measure.

James Taylor, managing director of Vauxhall, said: “It’s a good signal but we’re still at the beginning of the journey.

“We need to up the pace if we’re to make sure the 40% of households without driveways are not left behind in the transition to EVs and do more outside of London.

“4,094 new installations in the last quarter is a start, but next year it is forecast there will be hundreds of thousands more new EVs being registered to comply with the Vehicles Emissions Trading Scheme – we are making progress, but more is needed to match demand.”

The Government’s Vehicles Emissions Trading Scheme comes into force next year and requires a minimum 22% of cars, and 10% of vans, sold by manufacturers to be electric.

With this in mind, and growing numbers of EVs registered on UK roads, up 34% compared to October 2022, the number of accessible chargers will need to continue to rise to meet national demand.

Vauxhall launched its Electric Streets of Britain initiative in the summer in partnership with leading charge point operators Char.gy, Connected Kerb and Surecharge, to help councils identify where demand for residential charging is greatest.