Electric Vehicles: Charging Points

(asked on 2nd March 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of electric vehicle charging points in England; and what assessment he has made of the adequacy of that number.


Answered by
Rachel Maclean Portrait
Rachel Maclean
This question was answered on 5th March 2020

As of 1 January 2020, there were 109,314 domestic charging devices in England, funded through Office of Low Emission Vehicles grant schemes. The total number of domestic chargepoints will be higher than this, as not all electric car owners claim the grant. There were a further 13,719 public charging devices, according to the electric vehicle charging platform Zap-Map. The majority of public charging devices are funded privately and the Government does not hold a complete record of these installations, so the true number may be higher.

We recognise that range anxiety is often cited as one of the key barriers to motorists switching to electric cars, and we will continue to work with industry to establish one of the best electric vehicle infrastructure networks in the world. In collaboration with industry, the Government will invest £1 billion in charging infrastructure, ensuring that everyone is within 30 miles of a rapid charging station for electric vehicles.

In autumn last year, the Government launched the Chargepoint Infrastructure Investment Fund, a £400 million fund with up to £200 million from Government and £200 million from the private sector. The first £70 million of the Fund will create 3,000 new rapid chargepoints, more than doubling the number of rapid chargepoints across the UK by 2024.

Highways England has a commitment of £15m to ensure there are chargepoints (rapid where possible) every 20 miles on 95% of the Strategic Road Network by April 2020.

On 21 January, we announced that the Government has doubled the value of the On-street Residential Charging Scheme for 2020-2021 to £10 million to support the provision of up to 3,600 chargepoints for those that don’t have off-street parking.

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