Technology

Posted on August 1, 2018 by staff

UK’s least electric car-friendly places revealed

Technology

The UK’s most and least electric car-friendly towns and cities have been revealed, as over half of car owners say they are reluctant to make the switch because of the country’s “inadequate charging infrastructure”.

According to car buying comparison website Motorway.co.uk, Poole in Dorset is the UK’s most electric car-friendly town while London is the least friendly.

Analysing the towns and cities that are best placed to create a substantial home charging network, the company assessed the percentage of homes currently on the market in major towns and cities with private, off-street parking, enabling households to easily install an electric charge point and power up their vehicles at home.

It found that 9 in 10 properties on the market in Poole have some form of private parking, making the Dorset town “perfectly set up” to create a home charging network over the next 10 to 15 years. Similarly, Solihull and Chelmsford have more than 90 per cent of current properties on the market with off-street parking.

This is in stark contrast to London, where less than half (48.6 per cent) of properties on the market have off-street parking available.

“As the country moves closer to the 2040 Government deadline proposed for a UK-wide diesel and petrol vehicle ban, the need for an electric car charging infrastructure becomes ever-more critical,” said Motorway director Alex Buttle.

“We are talking about more than 30 million new power-hungry electric cars on the road by then if the switch over happens as expected.”

The government has said it wants all petrol and diesel cars off UK roads by 2040 to be replaced by more environmentally-friendly electric cars.

However, a recent survey by Motorway revealed that 52 per cent said they weren’t planning to switch to electric any time soon because of the UK’s inadequate charging infrastructure.

Buttle added: “The physical shape of Britain’s housing stock could put a spanner in the works of the Government’s electric switch over plans. Although many car owners can expect to have access to on-street charging stations, there’s no guarantee there will be enough to go around.

“Most people will want the convenience of charging their car at home rather than having to walk to a main road to pick up their vehicle. Home charging is usually fine if you have a detached or semi-detached house with a driveway, but what about the millions of people who live in flats and terraced houses with no private, off-street parking?”

Sale (Cheshire), High Wycombe, Milton Keynes, Southport, Swindon, Wolverhampton and Crawley also featured as some of the UK’s most electric car-friendly towns and cities.

Meanwhile, Dundee, Hastings, Portsmouth, Brighton, Salford, Aberdeen, Liverpool, Blackburn and Hull featured alongside London as having the lowest percentage of properties with private, off-street parking.