Essex currently has around 360 public EV chargers (120 fast chargers) and has a target of delivering 1500 charging points by 2025 and 6000 by 2030, when the government plans to phase out the sale of petrol and diesel cars. Essex is the lowest performer per 100,000 vehicles across Central, South and Eastern regions.

The UK has a minimum target of 300,000 publicly available charging points by 2030 but by June 2023, there are currently only 44,400 charging points across 25,500 locations.  The charging network is made up of 4 types of power ratings, slow, fast, ultra-fast and rapid, and while rapid makes up only 20% of the total number of chargers, they are responsible for 60% of the total capacity. This means there is significant pressure to increase the number of rapid and ultra-fast points moving forward.

Most of the vehicle charging is done at home (usually overnight) but the estimated that around 25% of UK households still park their vehicles on the street and the latest Zapmap (EV UK charger map service) reports that 40% of EV car owners use a publicly accessible charger point at least once a week.

Gridserve opened one of its first all-electric service point centres in Braintree and it has included a wide range of business and networking facilities, including a G Lounge, 4 office pods and Café, as well as parking, dog walking and picnic and play areas.

Essex County Council has numerous challenges ahead in meeting these aggressive targets and it is unlikely to be able to provide ultra-fast or rapid street charges in residential areas as the grid won’t support it. The Council is committed to achieving net zero by 2050 and has to continue to drive residents and businesses to use alternative methods of transport as well as support the drive for EV chargers. It is currently asking for suggested charging point locations to help see where the demand is and fulfil its plan for the right charging point in the right location.

Axiom Personnel works from a serviced office building in Romford and has been here for years. There are very limited public charging points available in this area, only one in the shopping centre and one near Romford Station. That number will never sustain the number of cars expected to move to electric by 2030. Our landlord hasn’t made that investment yet, there are multiple businesses in this building and looking at the car park, there is already the potential for EV chargers here.