FOI - Data held on EV charging points [Nov 2021]

Your request

Does the office of the Mayor of London hold any data which could be used to create something similar to a league table of installed electric vehicle (EV) charge points by borough?

Our response

Charge point operators are not mandated by the Government or by the Greater London Authority (GLA) to provide charge point data to the public sector. However, the GLA has been working with charge point operators to explore how we can enforce this for London as well as develop a public sector led datastore of charge point information.

The beginning of this work, as you have identified, is the Mayor’s electric vehicle (EV) charge point map. By working with operators, this map has started to collate a basic level of data (including charge point type, number, and location) to support drivers to identify locations of charge points.

We are exploring how we can expand on this map to collate further charge point information from operators with the aim to inform future charge point planning. This mapping will consider the spread of charge points across the boroughs and assist the GLA in how we work with the boroughs to support future rollout of charge points across the boroughs.

We will also consider if we should include a breakdown of charge points by borough, but we will need to consider how this information is shared to ensure that it encourages and supports delivering charging that is needed rather than potentially incorrectly suggesting that one borough does not have enough charge points compared to another borough.

As one of the commitments in our London 2030 EV Infrastructure Strategy, we continue to ask the Government to support a public led charge point datastore, which is why this work is subject to initial feasibility study and Government funding and would be initiated in 2022.

You can read more about this strategy in our draft summary attached.

The full report will be published later in 2021. These reports will set out further detail about our latest assessment on future charging needs across boroughs, and how we aim to meet London’s charging needs up to 2030.

You can view all London’s charge points at Zap-Map. This may help you identify the most up-to-date spread of charge points and charging types in the boroughs you are interested in.

If you have any further questions relating to this matter, please contact me, quoting the reference at the top of this letter.