New figures reveal that, as a consequence of having none at all, the Isles of Scilly’s ratio of zero public chargers per 1,000 registered EVs is the worst in the UK. Next comes Stockport, where there are just 1.04 chargers per 1,000 EVs.
It would only be fair to cut the Isles of Scilly a certain amount of slack here. Apart from the fact that non residents are not permitted to take their cars to the islands, St Mary’s – the only island with cars – has a total area of just 6.58 km², so the 47 residents who do own an EV, will never be too far from their home chargers.
The Stockport’s SK postcode has 95,973 EVs registered in it – more than any other in the country – yet the town currently offers a mere 100 public chargers.
This is not the first time the disparity between the ownership of emission-free cars and public charging infrastructure in the town has been highlighted. Last year, a CBRE survey identified Stockport as the UK town which provides the greatest investment opportunity in EV charging infrastructure.
The new figures, revealed by car dealership Beck Evans, features some of the same names as featured in that CBRE research. Windsor and Maidenhead were 5th on the latter and are revealed as the third worse in terms of the public charger to EV ownership ratio, with 2.32 chargers per 1,000 cars. Still more than double the availability in Stockport.
Completing the top five gallery of shame are Slough (2.73 per 1,000) and Swindon (3.84)
Only nine areas offer less than 10 chargers per 1,000 vehicles
Less miserly in their provision are Rother, Southend-on-Sea, Staffordshire Moorlands, Elmbridge and Sevenoaks, all of which offer more than 29 pubic chargers per 1,000 vehicles.
Sam Evans, director of Beck Evans, said: ‘As EV adoption rises across the UK, some areas face significant charging infrastructure shortages.
‘The Isles of Scilly has no public chargers, while Stockport and Windsor and Maidenhead have 1.04 and 2.63 chargers per 1,000 ULEVs respectively.
‘These findings highlight the growing need for expanded charging networks to support the increasing number of ultra-low emission vehicles.’