Majority of public charging points take eight hours to charge, say Lib Dems
Data from an analysis by the Liberal Democrats have revealed that 80 per cent of public charging points for electric vehicles would take up to eight hours to charge a small car.
According to the party despite the UK Government’s promises to increase the numbers, in the last three months out of 1,553 chargers installed only 372 were rapid ones. Overall, in the UK 19 per cent of charging points are rapid ones, whereas nearly 6,000 fall into the slow category.
“Too many electric car owners face the anxiety of being marooned in a car park for hours on end because the government is installing the wrong kind of charging points,” said MP Sarah Olney, the Lib Dems spokesperson for transport.
“The government needs to get on with it now or risk a new wave of electric car owners becoming stranded, or worse still, going back to diesel.”
Windsor, Swindon and Stockport are the worst places to charge EV, as they have the least amount of rapid chargers for electric cars, the data showed.
With one rapid charger per 1,474 EV, Windsor and Maidenhead rank first, followed closely by Stockport, where 16.568 cars share just 16 rapid points.
“Instead of vague words, Liberal Democrats are calling for a cut in VAT on the lowest cost electric vehicles and a massive expansion of rapid chargers, particularly in rural areas,” continued Olney.