London may install 50,000 charging stations for electric cars by 2025

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has unveiled a revamped plan for expanding electric vehicle infrastructure. According to the plan, more than 50,000 charging stations may be needed by 2025 to meet the proliferation of electric cars.

The report says there will be around 300 fast chargers in London by 2020, supplemented by more than 3,500 chargers that can power electric car batteries at slower speeds. According to London, this is sufficient to respond to the expected increase in the use of electric cars. By 2025, it is forecast that there will be a need for 2300 to 4100 fast charging points and 33.700 to 47.500 charging points with slower charging speeds.

However, the need for this number of charging stations by 2025 may be less than is currently thought. This can be caused by, among other things, problems with the deliveries of electric cars. There are still waiting lists and if deliveries are not yet up to speed, this could form a barrier to a major switch to the electric car. In addition, according to the report from the municipality, the infrastructure for electric cars is now also one of the barriers.

It is not yet a foregone conclusion that all those charging points will actually be built, because this partly depends on the growth in the number of electric cars in the coming years. That is why no mandatory target numbers are set yet. According to the report, most of these new charging points will have to be set up by the private sector, although more government support may be needed.

The report also briefly discusses a common concern that the proliferation of electric cars and the use of charging points is putting a significant strain on the overall power supply in the British capital and that the system could fail as a result. However, that would not be the case, provided that the use of the power grid is better coordinated and used more intelligently.