The Department for Transport said it had planned to install 9,000 points by the end of 2013 as part of its ‘Plugged-in Places’ scheme, with a target of 1.8 cars to each charging point. Based on the 8,600 electric cars sold by the end of this year, that would mean 4,700 points would have to be installed before 2012.

At present, only 704 have been installed, and two thirds of towns with a population over 150,000 have no public charging infrastructure at all. Difficulties laying power cables have been blamed for the delays.