London has been awarded £35.7m (€40.7m) from the Government’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) fund to significantly expand its charging infrastructure.

The funding will help ensure the capital stays on track to reach the 40,000 to 60,000 charge points needed by 2030

The funding, announced today (11 April 2023) by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and London Councils, will ensure thousands more EV charging points will be delivered across all 32 boroughs and the City of London to help the capital become a net-zero carbon city by 2030.

London already has close to 13,000 charge points, a third of the UK’s total, and the new funding will help ensure the capital stays on track to reach the 40,000 to 60,000 charge points needed by 2030 to meet the demand for electric vehicles.

An additional £3m has also been awarded to support the London boroughs in delivering LEVI projects.

The rollout will work to ensure public charge points are delivered fairly, meeting the needs of local communities, with a particular focus on supporting those who do not have access to off-street parking. The funding will also be used to enable cross-border collaboration between boroughs when procuring and delivering charge points.

London currently has one charge point for every four registered electric vehicles in the city, compared with the national average of one charge point for every 12 vehicles. The UK capital also has the most public rapid charge points by volume and share of any European city.

Sadiq Khan said: “Shifting to electric vehicles is just one of the ways we can clean up our air and bring down harmful, toxic emissions. London is leading the way in the delivery of electric vehicle charge points and infrastructure, and this funding will help ensure that we can reach our ambition to have at the very least one electric vehicle charge point on every street where needed.

“This is a bold ambition, and we will only achieve this by working closely with London boroughs and TfL to ensure public charge points are installed where they are most needed, making it easier, more accessible and more convenient for Londoners to switch to electric vehicles.

Alex Williams, TfL’s chief customer and strategy officer, said: “There is a comprehensive charging network across London to support the green transition. The capital now has nearly 13,000 public charge points, of which more than 850 are rapid or ultra-rapid. This is almost a third of the UK’s total and over a 200% increase from 2019.

“We know that with the explosion in electric vehicles many more charging sites will be needed, particularly for those without on-street parking. London is keeping up with demand by making public land available for infrastructure, and ensuring the charging points a world city needs are being built at pace and in significant numbers.”