Lewisham reached a milestone of 100 electric vehicle charging points last week as part of its commitment to tackle the climate emergency and promote sustainable travel.
The council says the charging points, which can be found on its website, will help make the switch to environmentally friendly forms of transport easier for people who still need a vehicle for essential journeys. From 2030, new cars and vans powered wholly by petrol and diesel will no longer be sold in the UK.
Councillor Sophie McGeevor, cabinet member for environment and transport, said she wants to make Lewisham a “cleaner, healthier borough” with a charging point within 500 metres of every household. ”We are proud of the changes we are making to promote sustainable travel.”
Other boroughs across London are also increasing the number of charging stations for electric cars, in line with the plans for a “green industrial revolution” announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson last month.
Hackney is installing 182 additional electric vehicle charging points, which the council hopes will be open to the public by the end of March next year. Tower Hamlets has 42 charge points and the council are working to install a further 182 on-street chargers by Easter 2021. Croydon announced plans in January this year for 42 more charging points, in line with the borough’s commitment to install 400 charging points by 2022.
The total number of charging points in London in 2018 was at 1,869, giving an average of 58 charging points for each of the city’s 32 boroughs.
However, boroughs such as Hammersmith and Fulham are well above this average figure. The council has installed 339 charging points so far, meaning that every home or business in the borough is within 400m of a charging point.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, predicts the volume of electric vehicles on London’s roads will double by 2023. The introduction of the Ultra-Low Emission Zone in London next year is expected to see further increases in their use.
Research by comparethemarket.com earlier this year showed London is some way ahead of the rest of the country when it comes to charging infrastructure, with 28.8 charging points per 100 electric cars, compared to the national average of 12.5.
This is because London and the south-east have received 45 per cent of new charger capacity in the past year, the Guardian reported last week.
The UK electric-car market in 2019: A total of 37,850 electric vehicles joined the UK’s roads last year, up from 15,510 in 2018. Research published by Accenture Strategy in April 2019 forecast EV sales to grow exponentially, and for over half of all UK vehicles sales to be EVs by 2040.Sales of electric cars went from 7,704 in September 2019 to 21,903 in September 2020 – a 184 per cent increase.
