Government pledges £56 million to public charging infrastructure

Drivers of electric vehicles across England will benefit from thousands of new chargepoints, the Department for Transport (DfT) has announced.

A total of 2,400 new chargepoints will be installed in locations such as Cumbria, Norfolk, Oxfordshire and West Sussex as part of £56 million in public and industry funding.

Sixteen more local authority areas will receive money as part of the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) pilot scheme.

The three original pilot schemes – in Durham, the London borough of Barnet and North Yorkshire – will be expanded.

Councils will also be given support to work with private operators towards the installation of “tens of thousands more” chargepoints in the long term, according to the DfT.

Transport minister Jesse Norman said: “The Government is giving local authorities across England additional help today to energise their chargepoint roll-out plans.

“Today’s commitment will lead to thousands of new chargers being installed, and plans for tens of thousands extra in due course, so that more people than ever can make the transition to using EVs.”

Sue Davies, Which? Head of Consumer Protection Policy, said: “Our research shows that the public EV charging infrastructure is falling short with people unable to rely on adequate charging points close to their homes or to get them through a long journey, so the government announcing thousands of new charge points is a step in the right direction.

“However, the government must also move quickly to implement its plans to improve the driver experience of using the public charging networks by extending reliability standards across the full network and ensuring proposals for payment roaming make paying to charge much simpler.

“Charging needs to be easy, reliable and seamless to support people making the move to an electric vehicle.”

Fewer than 9,000 public EV charging devices were installed in the UK last year, leading to claims that the infrastructure is not keeping up with demand.

Recent DfT figures revealed the number of devices available for use increased by just 8,680 from 28,375 in January 2022 to 37,055 12 months later.

The department said the Government has already spent more than £2 billion to support the move to zero-emission vehicles. More than a fifth of new cars sold in the UK last year had a plug.