UK EV charger boom is leaving disabled drivers behind

The number of on-street chargers has leapt up by 27 per cent in the last year, however, only a third of councils have installed ones that conform to important accessibility guidelines, once again leaving disabled drivers out of the loop. 

A Freedom of Information request submitted by Vauxhall as part of its Electric Streets campaign found that as many as 38 per cent of local councils across the UK do not offer on-street EV chargepoints that conform with the PAS 1899:2022 accessibility standards. 

It’s also worth pointing out that, while the above may sound sensationalist – after all, 62 per cent of councils do technically offer accessible charging – only 2.2 per cent of all the UK’s public chargers adhere to PAS guidelines, meaning there’ll be very few accessible ones in each area

PAS 1899:2022, while not enshrined in law, essentially asks chargepoint operators (CPOs) to ensure their devices are placed at a height appropriate for wheelchair users, are not too heavy to manipulate and are in an accessible area with plenty of space to manoeuvre, say, a mobility scooter.

Graham Footer, chief executive of Disabled Motoring UK, said that the findings are “unsurprising”, and that the campaign group is "deeply concerned by the almost complete lack of PAS-compliant public charging infrastructure”.

Footer explained that 40 per cent of disabled drivers the charity surveyed did not live in accommodation suited to home EV charger installation, meaning they would have to rely on public infrastructure – something that would not be compatible with many of their physical needs.

“The government's promise was that no one would be left behind in the transition to green energy, but it is completely obvious that disabled motorists are indeed being left behind in the transition to EVs,” Footer said, urging No 10 to “act now and address this failure before it’s too late”.

Auto Express has approached the government’s Disability Unit for comment, but is yet to receive a response.

In the meantime, this data comes only months after the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) published its report into the UK’s EV charger rollout, which concluded that the current situation is in danger of creating “inequalities in the cost of driving”. The government is also yet to publish the results of its review into PAS 1899:2022, despite it now being around two-and-a-half years after its initial introduction.

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