New research reveals a huge variation is the EV-readiness of the UK’s national parks with Scotland having the top two parks as ranked by EV charging points per user, while the Broads and North York Moors parks having no EV charging points whatsoever.
It should come as no surprise that, due to the coronavirus pandemic, holiday makers are opting to explore the natural beauty of the UK. Given the increasing number of EVs, the availability of charging points at popular destinations is, therefore, an important issue for both the UK tourist industry, and also as a way to reduce emissions and improve air quality.
Fortunately, many national parks around the country are now ready to receive an influx of EVs, with an average increase of 440%. On average, a national park in the UK has 21 public charging points and will can expect approximately 23 EVs per point. However, this overall improvement hides huge national variations across the UK, as revealed by the survey.
By dividing the number of car charging points by the average number of visitors in electric vehicles per year, Bristol Street Motors identified Scotland as having the two most EV friendly national parks; the Cairngorms and Loch Lomond & The Trossachs, which have 54 and 40 charging points respectively.
In Wales, the Brecon Beacons has the highest number of charging points per EV user, while in England, Northumberland was found to be the most accommodating national park, though it seems this still requires some improvement with just 1 charging point for every 6 visiting electric cars.
Fortunately, many of the UK’s 15 national parks have made significant investments in EV infrastructure in the past five years, with the biggest increase in the Pembrokeshire Coast national park which had 1 public charging point in 2015, but now boasts 19. The UK’s northern national parks also show a significant increase in EV charging points in the Peak district, Lake District and Yorkshire Dales.
However, at the bottom of the EV ranking, the study also finds that the Broads & North York Moors are now the only UK national parks without anywhere for electric cars to charge up; obviously a disincentive for visitors to use their zero-emission vehicles to visit and holiday in these two beautiful UK destinations.
For information about the UK’s national parks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_parks_of_the_United_Kingdom
For more information about the visiting and holidaying in the UK: https://www.visitbritain.com/gb/en
Methodology: The ranking of national parks was conducted by Bristol Street Motors who counted the amount of public charging points in the region using the Zap-Map (excluding home and hotel/ accommodation locations). The number of EVs visiting each year based on number of cars per year, assuming 1 car per 3 visitors, together with EV registration rate in UK of 1.07%, and assuming average person spends 3.51 days on holiday in a national park. Ranking calculated using the number of EVs per year divided by the number of public charging points.
Lead image credit: Alan Findlay, The Cairngorms, License: CC BY-SA 2.0 [photo cropped]
