Councils lack funding needed to drive EV revolution

The government is failing to provide local authorities with enough funding to install and maintain the charging infrastructure that will be necessary to push electric vehicles into the mainstream, a new report has warned.

The study was conducted by DevicePilot, which provides service monitoring for connected devices including smart meters and electric vehicles.

The main findings are derived from replies to Freedom of Information requests sent to 379 district councils. Responses were received from 268 local authorities, covering 73 per cent of the UK population. The company also undertook qualitative research with a smaller group of councils and conducted a survey of more than 1600 UK residents to see what would put them off buying an electric vehicle (EV).

The research found more than half of the responding councils – 57 per cent – have not received any government funding for EV charging infrastructure in the last 12 months. It revealed a significant disparity between nations in the union, with 62 per cent of English councils having received no funding over the past year, compared to 38 per cent in Wales and just 8 per cent in Scotland.

The data also showed that the responding councils across the UK plan to install a further 5,232 chargepoints by the end of 2021 – “an ambitious but heartening” increase of 38 per cent over their current tally of 13,742.

Although 85 per cent of the chargers (4,481) are planned by English councils, more half (2,657) are accounted for by local authorities in London. The report said the first of these two stats may be “slightly misleading” as the planned chargers will actually exacerbate an existing regional disparity between capital and the rest of England. An additional 556 chargepoints are planned in Scotland and 195 in Wales.

Note: The above chart is based on the populations and figures for the councils that responded to a Freedom of Information request.

In total, the local authorities that responded received almost £27.8 million of government funding over the last year, with English councils receiving nearly £19 million, Scottish councils close to £7 million and Welsh councils just over £2 million. This equates to an annual per capita budget for their residents of £0.45 in England, £1.91 in Scotland and £0.91 in Wales.

DevicePilot co-founder and chief executive Pilgrim Beart said: “With EV sales booming in 2020, improving charging infrastructure should be a key priority, but many councils – particularly in England – are crying out for more support. From our conversations with councils, many want to improve the situation, but don’t feel as though they have the budget to do so, or don’t know how to tap into government resources.”

He continued: “Of course, once these charging points are up and running, the next piece of the puzzle is ensuring that they work properly. Maintenance and reliability were identified in our public polling and by early adopters as a key pain point, so it is up to the charging point providers to ensure they are providing great customer service , otherwise EVs will never ‘cross the chasm’ into the mainstream.”

The report also found that only 34 per cent of councils are planning to install rapid EV chargers.

“As EVs continue to rise in popularity, the country will come to rely on rapid charging more and more, as low charging speed is already a common bug bear for EV owners,” said Beart.

“I was amazed to see that just a third of councils were making plans to install any rapids. To me, this number should be a lot higher, otherwise it could take hours to charge an EV, meaning that for people making long journeys, instead of charging in say 20 minutes while you grab a bite to eat, we will see people having to wait for hours at charging points, blocking them for other users.

“This will become a real problem down the line if it isn’t addressed.”