The number of car chargers has fallen in six English counties as the drive towards electric motoring stalls.
There are now fewer public charging points in Gloucestershire, Devon, Kent, Norfolk, West Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear than at the beginning of the summer.
Figures published by the Department for Transport yesterday also show a fall in Northern Ireland.
It suggests some regions are being left behind in the transition to electric vehicles and that Rishi Sunak was right to delay a ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars to 2035.
The Prime Minister announced the move in September in a victory for the Mail’s Rethink The 2030 Petrol Car Ban campaign, but is thought to have come too late to affect the charger figures.
The number of car chargers has fallen in six English counties as the drive towards electric motoring stalls (Stock Image)
Data shows on-street chargers fell by 12 per cent (725 to 636) between July 1 and October 1 in Tyne and Wear. In Kent, they fell from 837 to 823, from 539 to 528 in Devon and 278 to 273 in Gloucestershire.
The decline in West Yorkshire was from 981 to 979, from 595 to 594 in Norfolk and 433 to 431 in Northern Ireland.
It is the first drop in most of these areas since 2019, and is most likely due to firms decommissioning financially unviable chargers.
There are now fewer public charging points in Gloucestershire, Devon, Kent, Norfolk, West Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear than at the beginning of the summer (Stock Image)
It suggests some regions are being left behind in the transition to electric vehicles and that Rishi Sunak (pictured) was right to delay a ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars to 2035
It comes after a 14.3 per cent drop in electric car sales to private buyers in September compared to the same month in 2022.
Of the 42,489 public chargers in England, just 5,992 are in rural areas. By contrast, the number surged by 27 per cent in London, from 13,371 to 16,963.
Howard Cox, of pro-motorist group FairFuelUK, described the drop in chargers as ‘lamentable’.
The DfT said there has been ‘solid year-on-year increases’ in charger numbers in the six counties and Northern Ireland until now, and a 42 per cent rise across the country since October 2022.