Charging an electric vehicle is a struggle about to be faced by millions of Great Britain people. Rapid growth in public chargers is leaving a vast swathe of 'charging deserts,' many of whom have been left without easy access. This disparity tells of a growing call for more widespread, fair charging infrastructure across the country.

Electric Vehicle Charging Deserts: No Small Problem Electric Drivers in the UK

Interest in electric vehicles is growing nationwide, but there is a huge problem: most people have no easy way to charge them. Field Dynamics has just found that millions of households around Great Britain do not have public EV chargers nearby in a recent study. That's effectively lack of access to a charger if those people wanted to switch to an electric car.

Imagine you live in North-east Derbyshire or Redditch in the West Midlands. That's among the country's worst "charging deserts." In those instances, very few people have access to a public EV charger within walking distance from their homes. Field Dynamics discovered that about 9.3 million households in the UK don't have off-street parking, meaning they cannot own their own chargers. This forces them to depend on public chargers that are not always easy to find.

Growing Number of Chargers but Still Not Enough

While the number of public EV chargers rose almost by half in the past year, figures from ZapMap, there still remain large areas where units are few—a fact that applies more when one moves away from profound urban areas into what many open spaces describe as "charging deserts." In these places, people who park on the street do not have a nearby charger, which makes electric car ownership much less convenient.

It's London versus the rest of Great Britain.

While London has performed well with regard to chargers, there is a huge gap between the British capital and the rest of the country. Across 2020, this difference in coverage was 32 percentage points. Now it has grown to 47. This means that, on one hand, London is doing very well in creating the EV infrastructure, but other areas are further and further away from their schedule. In fact, in 38 local authorities, fewer than 10% of households have a public charger within a five-minute walk.

Why It Matters

For most people, making the switch to an electric car is friendly on the pocket and environmentally friendly as well. However, there is a clear line on who can charge at home and who cannot. A battery-electric driver who can't plug in at home may have to drive relatively far to find a charging point and then stand or sit by the car, waiting for it to charge up while incurring additional costs. But inconvenience is the least of these problems; it can also discourage electric vehicle purchases..

What's Being Done?

Craig Stephenson, managing director of Field Dynamics, said there is much more that local councils should be doing. He told BBC News:

"They should not be planning in just the areas with the high level of [electric cars] take-up. When you zoom into a map and look at where chargers are, a large number have one or two, not an acceptable level of an infrastructure."

Then, the installs can be targeted not only to fill in obvious gaps but also to include rural areas later in the process.

Some Are Doing Better Than Others

Not every area in the UK has poor EV charging coverage. Westminster, and Kensington and Chelsea, two among London's wealthiest, came close to 100% in their coverage. This means nearly every household in these areas is close to a public charger. Other places, such as Brighton and Coventry, have also done quite well: 83% and 76% coverage, respectively. Others with similarly good EV charging coverage might be considered slightly rural, such as East Lothian near Edinburgh, which has ensured 54% of its households have coverage.

The Need for More Support

Quentin Willson, who is behind FairCharge, the body that believes in electric cars, believes the government must help local councils go further. He said: "The best-covered areas have collaborated for years, investing. But unless the government intervenes with support and more funding, then this distribution mechanism will remain erratic across the country.".

In particular, Willson is worried about the £450 million Levi (Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure) funding that he believes local councils should be able to draw on more easily. Without such support, he says many areas will continue to be unable to provide enough infrastructure for electric vehicles.

As more people in Great Britain are thinking about switching to an electric car, the question of how the country's public chargers can meet demand becomes more pressing. Although some local authorities are built out pretty well with their EV infrastructure, others still stuck in "charging deserts." If the government is serious about cutting down its carbon footprint and encouraging electric vehicle use, then it has to work together with local councils to ensure that everybody has equally easy/ cost-effective convenient charging options.

This is not only a problem of the future; it's a problem of today. Without the right infrastructure, millions of people could be locked out of the dream of a greener, cleaner Britain.