UK sees shortfall in electric car charging points
The UK’s Department of Transport said it plans to install 9,000 points by 2013. Experts expect that 8,600 electric cars will be sold by the end of this year and set a target ratio of 1.8 cars for every publicly available charging point. By that reckoning, there would need to be more than 4,700 recharging facilities before 2012.
Research conducted for the BBC shows that there are currently only 704 publicly available charging points. Delays in the creation of a public charging infrastructure have been caused at a local level by difficulties in laying power cables. The Department of Transport said it had provided up to £30million to kick-start installation in ‘test-bed’ areas. There are about 30 million vehicles on British roads – 3,000 of which are electric vehicles.
Experts predict that nearly two million of the cars on Britain’s roads will be electric powered by 2020.
