A new census of Britain’s EV charging-enabled cities and stores reveals Tesco as the nation’s most EV-friendly shopping chain and London as the leading city for workplace charging points.
Analysis by business researchers Direct365 has found that, in the run up to next years Zero Emissions Mandate:
- Britain’s current total of just under 18,000 registered public EV chargers is a meagre 6% of the 300,000 sought by the government for 2030
- London’s 7,000-plus registered public chargers is ludicrously skewed. Manchester has only 313, lagging second placed Coventry on 831 and Nottingham on 344
- In supermarket car parks, Tesco’s 774 charging stations sets it out front of Morrison’s 273 nationwide
Just over 6,000 of the capital’s public registered EV charging point are on-street. Another 237 are in London’s car parks, and 20 more in hospital or NHS grounds.
Nearly 80% of Coventry’s 83 charge points are on-street or kerb-side. Only 51% of the city’s charge points require payment, including those at major supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s. Aldi and Lidl.
Tesco emerges as Britain’s most EV-friendly brand. The grocery goliath has 774 EV stations, almost two thirds more than Morrisons’ 273. Tesco in Manchester offers 23 charge stations to shoppers, whilst in London Tesco stores only offer 14 charge stations throughout the city.
IKEA lags other chains, with a claimed total of 25 EV chargers across UK stores. Most IKEA stores only have one charger.
Bradford has the highest total of Aldi EV charging stations with 9 , while London has the spoil of Lidl’s 18 points and Sainsbury’s EV ports, on 20.
The Zero Emission Vehicles Mandate comes into force in 2024, aiming to achieving ZEV sales targets of 80% by 2030. Currently EV vehicles make up 15.7% – around one in six – of new cars sold.
For EV charging at workplaces, the study says London again tops the list with 107 scatted around the capital. Dundee has the second highest with a meagre 18 workplace stations . Only 29% of UK towns and cities have even a single workplace charging point.
For EV points at park’n’ride facilities, Nottingham’s stations boast 38, more than any other city, and ahead of Leicester and London with 22 and 20 EV stations respectively.
NCP, the nation’s biggest commercial operator of car parks has only 81 charging points, according to the survey. Twenty are at NCP sites in London, with 9 each in Manchester & Bolton.
“One thing’s for certain”, said Direct365’s Karl Bantleman. “In the not so distant future, EV vehicles will dominate our roads, whether this be through choice or by law
“Much more investment into charging infrastructure is required for the government to meet their ambitious goal to ban the sale of new ICE cars by 2030.
“Although we have currently only met 6% of our goal to have 300,000 chargers by the end of the decade, current owners and those considering the switch to EV should not be put off”.
More on the survey here.
