Our latest research shows that the City of London is first out of 408 areas across the UK for the highest percentage of electric vehicles – with 5.6%* of vehicles** licensed there being plug-ins.
The City of London also has the UK’s greatest density of public charging stations, with 36 charging points in just one square mile. This is more than much larger areas like Watford (30), Cambridge (28) and Swansea (24). This convenience is likely to have encouraged both the City’s residents and businesses to take up electric vehicles.
The Top 10 areas for electric vehicles (see table below) also includes second-placed Peterborough, where 5.2% of vehicles are now plug-ins, and fifth-placed Slough on 3.3%. The high percentage of plug-ins in these locations is in part due to them being key UK logistics hubs, where businesses are transitioning to greater use of electric vehicles.
Rounding out the Top 10 is Renfrewshire, west of Glasgow, where 2% of vehicles are electric. Renfrewshire Council recently announced that 20% of its vehicles are now electric.
There has also been a surge in consumer demand for electric vehicles driven by reduced ‘range anxiety’ (fear of running out of charge before reaching a charging point), more vehicle options and increased environmental awareness.
However, growth in charging infrastructure is now key to fuelling more widespread adoption of electric vehicles. With many councils suffering from constrained budgets, the provision of bigger charging ‘hubs’ by private businesses is becoming ever more important.
Gary Robins, our Head of Business Development, comments:
“Electric vehicles are now firmly in the mainstream – not just for private users, but for some of the world’s biggest businesses.”
“The rapid implementation of charging infrastructure for this growing fleet of electric vehicles is becoming more important by the day.”
Taxis, minicabs and private vehicles pose a key challenge, as in many cases they will need to charge in public at least once a day. This is a major issue in London where a lack of charging points has led to waits of up to two hours for taxi drivers to even begin to recharge.
EV Hub, the 30-minute electric vehicle charging hub provider, is now raising £3m of capital through Growthdeck to fill London’s growing electric vehicle charging capacity gap.
EV Hub’s charging hubs will house between 15 and 30 charging connectors that can recharge a vehicle in half an hour. The company’s first flagship rapid-charging sites are planned at the high-demand charging ‘blackspots’ at King’s Cross and Heathrow Airport, after which the business plans to expand to 100 sites within five years.
Gary Robins adds:
“As more and more businesses rely on electric vehicles, a lack of charging capacity will begin to impact the UK’s productivity as a whole. With industries such as taxis, where time is money, access to charging points becomes even more important.”
“EV Hub provides a viable solution to the problem of the charging capacity gap, which will position the business as a major part of the city’s electric vehicle infrastructure.”
Reference
* Year end June 30 2019. Source: DVLA
** Including cars and light goods vehicles