The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) has revealed the number of grants it has awarded for the installation of EV charging devices across the UK, with a geographical divide making itself apparent.
The findings, which include grants up to 01 July 2021, show that the OZEV has funded 197,985 domestic charging devices since 2013, including over 157,000 homecharge devices and nearly 17,000 sockets in workplace car parks.
The report highlights an uneven geographical distribution of both homecharging devices and workplace chargers within the UK.
Grant uptake by consumers, as part of its Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS), is likely to be dependent on a variety of factors, including access to an EV, the availability of off-street parking, rurality and income, according to the OZEV.
As map 1 shows, the South East had the highest number of charging device installations under the EVHS, accounting for 20% of total devices installed under the scheme. Meanwhile, Northern Ireland had the lowest number of installations with 2,736 EVHS funded charging devices, accounting for just 1.7% of total EVHS funded devices.
As map 2 shows, the South East also had the highest number of EVHS devices per 100,000 households whilst Northern Ireland and Wales had the lowest. However, London was comparable with Northern Ireland and Wales with just 394 charging devices per 100,000 households.
In the Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS), yet again the South East had the highest uptake with 2,465 sockets installed whilst Wales and Northern Ireland had the lowest. Combined they accounted for 5.9% of total sockets installed under the WCS in the UK.
Its quarterly statistical release did showcase a 40% increase in home chargers from July last year, with 44,685 devices installed within the last 12 months. While workplace socket installations rose by 72% to 7,118 over the past year.
Furthermore, the OZEV has funded the installation of 1,459 public charging devices since the on-street residential chargepoint scheme was established in 2017. This represents over £4.5m of grant funding across 49 councils.
An additional 88 local authorities have also been awarded grant funding, providing 3,282 on-street public charging devices with their installations yet to be completed.
