Motorists living on more than 11,500 residential streets across the country have called for councils to install on-street charging for electric vehicles (EVs).

Calls for on-street EV charging to be installed on 11,500 streets across the country

The residential roads identified by the public have been submitted to Vauxhall’s Electric Streets of Britain campaign, which aims to support the 40% of households without access to a driveway, while data shows that 80% of electric vehicle charging is done at home.

Vauxhall will be working with its three Electric Streets chargepoint operator partners – charg.y, ConnectedKerb, and Surecharge – to utilise the data it has received through its online database and share it with local councils up and down the country helping them to identify the charging solutions required for their local residents. Vauxhall will also share regular updates with drivers who registered through the Electric Streets of Britain database, keeping them informed of how their interest is supporting the growth of the UK’s charging network.

A new Freedom of Information (FOI) request by Vauxhall found that 56.5% of the 267 local authorities who responded still do not have a published on-street residential charging strategy in place. Although this figure has improved by almost 15% since 20233 (72% of UK councils), the data reflects the work still to be done, to reach the required levels of accessible charging needed to match electric vehicle demand.

James Taylor, managing director, Vauxhall, said: “On-street residential charging is critical to the adoption and acceleration of electric vehicles. Thanks to the public, we already know of over 11,000 roads where we need to install on-street chargers today to make it more convenient for EV drivers and remove a barrier for those wanting to switch to electric.”

Vauxhall’s new on-street charging demand map highlights the areas where infrastructure demand is highest. It shows the disparity in infrastructure levels across the country with a larger number of registrations found in the North of England compared to the South, with Leeds, Glasgow and Sheffield all included among the local authorities recording the biggest level of demand.

The 267 councils who responded to the new FOI told Vauxhall that together they have collectively installed over 15,000 on-street chargers currently on UK roads, and plan to install a further 8,000 over the next year. With the UK Government continuing towards its aim of having 300,000 public EV charge points by 2030, councils will need to ensure momentum continues to hit national targets.

However, 14 of the top 20 councils by number of on-street chargers installed so far, and 10 of the 20 councils to have seen the biggest increase in on-street charge point numbers year-on-year, are based in the capital highlighting the need for a greater distribution nationally.

London Boroughs of Southwark and Barnet lead the way, making up 20% of the share of total on-street charge points in the UK installed between them. Coventry City Council lists third, the highest administration outside the capital, with 1,340 on-street chargers recorded – a growth of 40% compared to figures provided to Vauxhall in 2023.