UK EV charging: the best and worst areas for public stations and how many cars per charger in every region

The UK’s best and worst areas for electric vehicle charging have been revealed in new figures.

Data released by the Department for Transport (DfT) shows stark differences in public charging availability around the country, with some council areas boasting almost one public charger for every plug-in vehicle, while others see more than 100 vehicles competing for access to each charge point. 

While the number of publicly-available chargers has rocketed from around 8,000 to more than 40,000 in the last five years, the number of plug-in vehicles on the road has increased even more rapidly and not all areas are keeping pace with the change. 

Using the most recent figures from the DfT, NationalWorld’s data team has analysed the number of public chargers of all speeds by council area and region and compared it with the number of privately-owned plug-in vehicles that can use these chargers. That includes full battery electric vehicles, as well as plug-in hybrids and range extender EVs. 

The best areas of the UK for public charging stations

The figures show that Coventry is the best place in the country to own a plug-in car. With a total of 1,092 public chargers and 1,298 vehicles, it means the West Midlands city has a ratio of just 1.1 vehicles per charger. 

Close behind it are the two London boroughs of Southwark and Westminster, with 1.3 and 1.5 vehicles per charger respectively. Three other London councils also make it into the top 10 - City of London (1.9 vehicles per charger), Hackney (3.3) and Hammersmith & Fulham (3.5) -  reflecting strong charger provision in the capital. 

Three Welsh council areas also make it into the top 10 - Blaenau Gwent (1.6), Pembrokeshire and Gwynedd (both 3.8) along with Scotland’s Na h-Eileanan Siar (2.1). In some cases, a relatively small number of chargers is balanced out by relatively few EVs or plug-in hybrids but in others high level of plug-in uptake has been matched by charger roll-out.

The worst areas of the UK for public charging stations

At the opposite end of the scale, the Isles of Scilly council area doesn’t have a single public charger but, according to government data, there are only 12 privately owned plug-in vehicles on the archipelago. Among councils that do have some charging provision, the small council area of Castle Point, in the East of England, has just three public chargers and 499 private plug-in vehicles, equivalent to 166 vehicles to every charger. 

Three more councils in the East of England also prop up the bottom of the league table, with Brentwood (124 cars per charger) Dacorum (94) and Fenland (73) among the worst served by public chargers. 

How regions compare for EVs per charger

Across the UK as a whole, there are 11 plug-in vehicles for every public charger but the figures show wide regional differences. In London, where there are 12,780 chargers, there are six privately owned plug-in vehicles to each device, but in the East of England there are almost 20 (19.8) vehicles for each charge point.

Regionally, the North East and Wales are just behind London, with 8.3 vehicles to each charger and in Scotland the ratio is 8.4 to one. In Northern Ireland, there are 13.8 plug-in vehicles to each public charging device. 

The figures come after industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) warned that charger provision needed to improve rapidly to avoid discouraging drivers from switching to EVs. While the total number of chargers has reached more than 40,000, there are now more than 1.2 million EVs and PHEVs on UK roads.

However, leading figures in the charging industry have highlighted that more than 80% of charging is currently done using home chargers and have emphasised firms are rapidly working to improve public provision. Ian Johnston, chair of industry bodyChargeUK and CEO of Osprey charging, said that the rate of public roll-out in 2023 was faster than ever.

Johnston added that with high levels of home charging, the key to better charging provision was getting the correct spread of chargers where they were most needed. He commented: “We don’t need an equal geographical spread of chargers, we need them most where people have less access to off-street parking.”

The data also shows that the charging network is still dominated by the ill-named “fast” chargers of up to 22kW, with 22,338 such devices.

Charging firms are increasingly rolling out rapid and ultra-rapid units, particularly along motorways and other key routes but at the moment there are just 4,986 rapid (22kW to 100kW) and 2,661 ultra-rapid (100kW+) units, while there are still more than 10,000 slow points delivering charging at up to 7kW, according to the DfT figures.