Coventry named UK’s EV capital

Coventry has been named as the best city in the UK to own an electric vehicle. It overtakes Sunderland at the top of the charts, with Newcastle ranked third.

Portsmouth was lowest ranked, with Leicester and Liverpool also among the worst.

The study, carried out by Forbes Advisor, looked  at 20 of the biggest cities in the UK and ranked each based on the average cost to charge an EV, the number of rapid charging points per vehicle and the number of standard and rapid charging points per 100,000 people.

Based on this data, each location was assigned an ‘EV Accessibility Rating’ out of 80, with Coventry coming out on top, scoring 70/80, and Portsmouth ranking lowest with a score of 27/80. London scored 49/80.

The research also found that Glasgow has made the biggest improvement in its EV infrastructure over the past year, increasing the number of charging points per 100,000 people by 18.5%. The investment has resulted in the Scottish city jumping from 16th in the UK to ninth.

Belfast was by far the cheapest city to run an electric vehicle, but the Northern Irish capital only has 15.5 charging points per 100,000 residents.

The top 10 cities according to the report are: Coventry, Sunderland, Newcastle, Leeds, Middlesbrough, London, Reading, Sheffield, Glasgow, Cardiff.