News Published on : 07-Oct-2021 09:53:02

New research from comparethemarket reveals the areas in the UK which have the best electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure in place and which destinations have been unable to keep up with the increasing transition to EVs. The study shows that while the number of registered EVs has been growing in recent years some areas in the UK have been unable to provide the proportionate amount of EV charging stations for this surge. Councils rely on government grants to install public charging points which can partially explain the infrastructure gap but in some cases it may also be that the increase in demand for EVs has been so rapid that the local authority has been unable to match demand. The tiny Isles of Scilly has no public EV chargers although there are only 42 registered EVs on the islands. However a plan to install 28 charging points has been announced with EV motorists on the islands having to rely on their home chargers for now. In mainland Britain Stockport and Swindon have the second and third largest EV infrastructure gaps respectively. Whilst some areas in the UK are struggling to keep up with the increasing demand for EV charging infrastructure other places are excelling. With more than 1 000 registered EVs and 456 public charging devices Coventry is the best equipped for the move towards EVs with 40.86 chargers per 100 EVs - which works out at two chargers for every five vehicles. Coventry is aiming to become the country s first all-electric city and has benefited from generous government funding and as well as hosting the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre with planning under way to build an electric car battery gigafactory in the city. In total there are 24 219 public charging points in the UK that can be used to charge 475 800 registered electric vehicles. This equates to almost 20 EVs for every public charging point.