A quarter of England’s strategic A-roads have electric vehicle charging ‘cold spots’, or areas where there are significant gaps in the charging infrastructure available to drivers.
Twenty-nine out of 107 A-roads that are part of the strategic road network have at least one cold spot, according to data obtained by charging company Zest from the Department for Transport, The Guardian newspaper has reported.
Cold spots are defined as points where a vehicle with only 10% of its battery remaining would not be able to reach a site with at least six rapid or ultra-rapid devices.
Affected roads ranged from the A1 north of Peterborough, to the A11 south of Norwich, and several parts of the A38 and A42 north of Birmingham.
Several of the cold spots are on vital routes for holidaymakers – who are likely to be the most reliant on top-ups from rapid chargers.
They include the A2 on the way to Dover, a popular connection to Europe via ferry, a huge swath of the A31 and A35 between Southampton and Weymouth, and several parts of the A303 and A30 that are often filled with families on their way via Exeter to Cornwall for summer holidays.
The Lake District is also badly served, with the A590 to the south of Cumbria one of the biggest cold spots. The largest cold spot is the A49 running through Hereford and Shropshire.
The number of public EV chargers in the UK is rising faster than the number of electric cars, as companies race to snap up the best spots. There were 75,675 public charge points at the end of February, up by nearly a third compared with a year earlier, according to data company Zap Map, the Guardian said.
Nevertheless, the roll out has been uneven across the country, with wealthier areas favoured because richer drivers are more likely to own electric cars.
Robin Heap, Zest’s chief executive, said that while the UK was making excellent progress overall on installing more chargers, the government should also look at addressing densely populated areas without many chargers.
He said: “The reality is that most people need convenient access to charging at or near their homes or workplaces to make the switch to electric vehicles.
“It is also worth considering whether public funds, such as the £950m rapid charging fund, which currently supports commercially viable motorway service areas, could be more effectively directed towards cold spots on A-roads and local charging solutions for communities that may never attract commercial investment.”
Separately, the Department for Transport has said that local authorities in the Midlands are set to roll out thousands of EV chargers thanks to more than £40m in government funding.
Drivers across the Midlands will benefit from more than 16,000 new EV chargers, it added.
Future of Roads minister Lilian Greenwood confirmed that 13 local authorities across the Midlands, supported by Midlands Connect, have received £40.8m from the Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund to roll out thousands of chargers across the region.
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