Report Examines State of EV Infrastructure in U.K.

To meet its target of 300,000 charge points by 2030, the U.K. government must install 30,000 devices every for the next seven years, according to the recently published Electric Vehicle Ecosystem Report (EVE) produced by Novuna Vehicle Solutions, a U.K. vehicle leasing and fleet management company.

The report reviews how the transition to electric vehicles (EV) and the supporting infrastructure likely to unfold in the immediate future.

EVE focuses on three core dimensions of the EV landscape: the current state of the nation’s EV infrastructure and how well it is serving U.K. drivers; lessons from EV early-adopters; and the future intentions of gas and diesel drivers, when or if they are likely to switch.

“Battery-operated vehicles now make up 14% of all new car registrations each month, rising to one in three when including hybrids,” explained Jonny Berry, Novuna head of decarbonization. “But BEVs or hybrids still only represent around 3% of all vehicles on U.K. roads, and there is a long way to go until we reach anything resembling a critical mass.”

Other key insights from EVE:

• Five in six (85%) drivers of EVs say they would make their home charger available to the public if they could charge fellow motorists to use it.
• Off-street parking is such an important factor for EV and PHEV drivers, that two-thirds (68%) say they would never buy or live in a house without these facilities ever again.
• London is the best place to charge in the U.K. with just five EVs chasing each available public charge point in the capital (5:1) compared to the Southwest at the other end of the scale (32:1).
• Younger generations are most compelled by the credentials of EVs. Four in five (79%) 18-34 year olds expect their next car will be an EV, while two thirds (64%) of 35-54 year olds agree. The over-55 population is most resistant to change, with only a third (34%) committing to the prospect buying an EV as their next vehicle.

According to the report, EV drivers in the U.K. today rely on a network of over 32,011 public charge points, of which 5,974 are rapid chargers. With 441,167 EVs – and the numbers rising fast – on U.K. roads, the ratio of EVs to the fast recharger units is just 80:1 or 1.25 rapid chargers for every 100 drivers.

The full EVE report is available on the Novuna Vehicle Solutions website.