Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an estimate of the (a) number of and (b) percentage increase in public electric vehicle chargers in London that would be required to help support a target of (i) 50 and (ii) 70 per cent of new vehicle purchases being electric in 2030.

In March the Government published its electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure strategy setting out our vision and commitments to make electric vehicle charging cheaper and more convenient than refuelling at a petrol station.

In the strategy we laid out our expectation that at least ten times more public chargepoints to be installed across the UK by the end of the decade, bringing the number to around 300,000 by 2030. To support our vision, we will invest £1.6 billion in accelerating the roll-out of charging infrastructure.

Government has not set targets for chargepoint provision per region because the exact number and type of chargepoints will be highly dependent on local circumstances and the range and technology of future electric vehicles. Local authorities have a key role to play as they are best places to consider local needs. We will require all local transport authorities in England to develop their own chargepoint strategies, subject to consultation.

The Mayor of London and Transport for London have produced their own EV Infrastructure Strategy for 2030 which was updated in December 2021. This estimates that London will need around 40,000 to 60,000 charge points by 2030, of which up to 4,000 will be rapids. This is based on there being between one and 1.4 million EVs in London, which is between 34 per cent and 49 per cent of London’s total car and van fleet.

Of the £1.6 billion, at least £500 million will support local chargepoint provision to ensure that the transition to electric vehicles takes place in every part of the country, the local electric vehicle infrastructure fund (LEVI) will provide approximately £400 million of capital and £50 million of resource funding to support local authorities to work with industry and transform the availability of charging for drivers without off-street parking. Local authorities in London will be eligible to apply for this funding.