Are Britain’s local councils ready for the electric car revolution?

A Freedom of Information investigation by carmaker Vauxhall UK has revealed that over 70% of UK councils have no strategy in place to install on-street residential charging points for electric vehicles despite the country lagging behind its target of installing 300,000 by 2030.

Forty percent of households do not have a driveway, rising to sixty percent in urban areas and the shortage of on street charging points means millions of potential EV owners are unable to charge at home[1], just seven years ahead of the deadline for all carmakers to cease production of petrol and diesel vehicles.

Vauxhall released the figures today as it announced it is setting up an ‘Enablement Fund’ to help improve Local Authority understanding of residential on-street charging needs across the next 12 months.

Residential on-street charging solutions include lamp post chargers, which can be installed and working within as little as 30 minutes, and innovative pavement-mounted bollards.

The FOI application to 414 councils and local authorities in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland also reveals that 69% of local authorities have yet to install any on-street chargers.

According to the 289 councils who responded only 14,188 new points are planned for the rest of the year, well behind the run rate required to hit the Government’s target of having 300,000 running by the end of 2030.

In response, Vauxhall – which will offer an electric version of every car and van model in its line-up and has pledged to only sell electric vehicles in the UK by 2028 – has set up the multi-year ‘Electric Streets of Britain’ programme to make sure drivers without driveways are not left behind in the transition to electric mobility.

Vauxhall has teamed up with leading charging operators Char.gy, Connected Kerb, and Surecharge in setting up the multi-year ‘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 engine cars in 2030.

Vauxhall has also set up a new national database for the public to register their needs, enabling councils to invest Government funds where demand for on-street EV charging already exists.

On-street electric car charging is seen as critical to EV uptake as current data shows that 80% of all EV charging is done at home.

With 12,708 residential on-street residential charge points installed to date and a further 6,397 planned to be installed over the next year, London will soon be home to 19,105 on-street charge points – more than double the number of on-street charge points available across all other regions of the UK combined.

Vauxhall’s research also highlighted the need for further support across all four corners of the United Kingdom – Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland made up three of the four regions of the country projecting the lowest number of on-street charge points planned to be installed over the coming year.

Of the councils who responded to the investigation across the UK, 45% confirmed they had no plans to install residential on-street chargers this year.