Wandsworth Has Most Electric Vehicle Charging Points
New data shows that borough has more than any other in London
Electrice vehicle charging. Picture: Wandsworth Council
A map that pinpoints all the UK’s electric vehicle (EV) charging points is now showing that Wandsworth tops the London league table for the number of publicly available sockets.
Data compiled by Zap-Map which reveals where charging points are across the entire British Isles, shows there are more in Wandsworth than in any other London borough.
Just under 400 of these on-street charging sockets have been fitted by the council in partnership with ubitricity and Siemens as well as with Source London. There are more than 560 EV charging points in the borough of Wandsworth. Some additional chargers have also been installed on the borough’s main trunk roads by Transport for London (TfL).
This number was boosted in September with the completion of a council project to install 167 sockets including every available and suitable lamppost in two neighbourhoods in Battersea’s Shaftesbury ward and Putney’s Thamesfield ward.
By early next year another 140 lamppost sockets are set to come on stream with further installations planned later in 2021. This will help the council meet its current target of delivering nearly 900 on-street charging points.
The reason these two areas in Battersea and Putney have been chosen for such a high concentration of on-street sockets is because they will both be directly adjacent to an expanded Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) expected to be in place in October 2021 and will include all areas of London within the north and south circular roads.
If the ULEZ is extended as currently proposed, all vehicles and motorcycles which enter the zone but don’t comply with its emission restrictions will have to pay £12.50 a day – but electric vehicles will be exempt.
The annual number of plug-in vehicles registered in the borough has grown from 252 in 2012 to around 5,000 today – with numbers rising by more than ten per cent every three months.
There are also EV choices available for those who don’t need to own a vehicle but want to enjoy occasional more eco-friendly motoring.
The Zipcar Flex car club includes a proportion of EVs, offering an alternative to car ownership, providing electric vehicles to hire by the hour, day or longer periods. The council says the borough has the highest take-up rate of car club membership in the country with more than 31,000 registered members.
Transport spokesman John Locker said, “The rapid growth in the number of charging points we have supported and overseen in Wandsworth means that running an EV is now much more of a realistic choice for our residents. Fitting sockets to so many lampposts has helped make electric vehicle ownership a realistic prospect for our residents.
“We want to be pioneers in promoting more eco-friendly and emissions free forms of transport and part of that is doing what we can to help persuade people who do need their cars to ditch diesel and petrol and go electric.”
To view a map of local charging points visit zap-map.com.
For more information about electric vehicle ownership in the borough visit this page.
November 10, 2020