Electric car drivers could face 7,500-hour wait at rapid charging stations in EV chaos
Some areas around the UK have a huge gap between the number of EVs and rapid chargers
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New data has suggested that some electric car drivers will need to spend a staggering 7,564 hours waiting to charge their car, highlighting the UK’s insufficient charging network.
Windsor and Maidenhead have the largest number of electric vehicles per public rapid charger, with 29,599 EVs for just three chargers.
While the situation of all EVs in the area converging on those three rapid chargers seems almost non-existent, drivers could still experience a long wait.
Government data shows that just 17 per cent of chargers are rapid, meaning for every scenario where drivers turn up to unavailable chargers, it could take up to 12 hours for a full charge with a slow charger.
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According to data from Leasing Options, electric car drivers in Windsor and Maidenhead would be forced to queue up for 7,564 hours and 11 minutes, or 315 days.
There are just three rapid chargers in the area, having to serve 9,866 EVs at each rapid charger.
In second place is Stockport, where more than 10 percent of total cars are electric, although they are only served by 35 rapid chargers.
As a result, there are 1,721 electric cars per charger, meaning the total queue time would be 1,319 hours and 16 minutes.
There were 49,882 electric vehicle charging points around the UK in September, across 29,709 charging locations.
While this does represent a 43 per cent increase in the total number of charging devices since last year, only 1,432 new EV chargers were added to Zapmap’s database.
There were expectations that the UK would hit the 50,000-charger mark last month as the UK continues to develop the charging network.
The Government is believed to be pressing ahead with its aim of installing 300,000 chargers by the end of the decade to cope with the number of electric vehicles on the road.
In terms of big cities, electric car drivers in Leicester have just three chargers which operate at speeds of rapid or above.
While there are only 1,732 EVs in the city, this would still mean a total queue time of 442 hours and 37 minutes.
Some measures are being taken to ensure the impact of this is reduced, including using marshals to calm drivers at Moto service stations at a handful of locations.
Rishi Sunak recently announced a major change to the deadline to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles in the UK.
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There are almost 50,000 public chargers around the UK
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In a round of changes to net zero pledges, the Prime Minister moved the car ban deadline from 2030 to 2035, allowing drivers to have a greater chance to access an electric car when the upfront price falls in the coming years.
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