Poole most electric friendly town

Poole, in Dorset, is the most electric car-friendly town in the UK, while London is the least friendly, according to research into home car charging by Motorway.co.uk.

Analysing the towns and cities that are best placed to create a substantial home charging network, Motorway.co.uk assessed the percentage of homes currently on the market in major towns and cities with private, off-street parking, enabling households to easily install an electric charge point and power up their vehicles at home.

Motorway.co.uk used new properties for sale data as a gauge of total and type of housing stock, to reveal the areas with the biggest opportunities and challenges for home charging.

The government has said it wants all petrol and diesel cars off UK roads by 2040 to be replaced by more environmentally-friendly electric cars.  For that to happen, motorists need to be able to charge their electric vehicles easily and cheaply. However, a recent survey of car owners by Motorway.co.uk revealed that more than half (52%) said they weren’t planning to switch to electric any time soon because of the UK’s inadequate charging infrastructure.

Motorway.co.uk’s home charging research revealed that Poole has the highest percentage of current properties for sale with off-street parking. In Poole, more than nine in 10 properties on the market have some form of private parking, so the Dorset town is perfectly set up to create a home charging network over the next 10-15 years. Similarly, Solihull and Chelmsford have more than 90% of current properties on the market with off-street parking.

This is in stark contrast to London, where less than half (48.6%) of properties on the market have off-street parking available. This presents a headache for residents who currently must drive to a public charging points and local councils who will need to build more shared charging units to cope with demand.

The challenge facing the government is ensuring that electric car charging infrastructure can handle the 2040 switch over to electric and hybrid vehicles. And a vital component of this network will be home charging, as many people will want the option of leaving their cars charging overnight at home, not on the street.

But that in itself creates its own problem, as a large number of properties in the UK, particularly terraced houses and flats, won’t have driveways or off-street parking, or if they do, there will need to be multiple charging points installed for all flats to use at considerable cost.