Recent analysis of 89 global cities by online home rental company Spotahome has revealed London is the best for electric vehicle infrastructure.
Spotahome has standardised the latest data available for EV charging points to rank each city out of ten. London has been awarded the highest index score of 10.
As of July 2018, the UK had 162,000 plug-in cars, with London councils set to deliver another 2,630 charging points in the next financial year.
London is working hard to deliver a modern and environmentally sustainable capital city for the future, but other UK cities are not faring quite so well. This is potentially due to a £400m government plan to install charging points being significantly delayed.
Without this boost of investment, Manchester is currently ranked in 18th place (1.76), Edinburgh in 31st (1.1) and Leeds in 35th place (0.88).
| # | Highest level of electric vehicle charging points | Score |
| 1 | London, United Kingdom | 10 |
| 2 | Amsterdam, Netherlands | 9.63 |
| 3 | Rotterdam, Netherlands | 8.73 |
| 4 | Berlin, Germany | 8.24 |
| 5 | Hamburg, Germany | 7.2 |
| 6 | Oslo, Norway | 6.82 |
| 7 | New York, United States | 5.51 |
| 8 | Lisbon, Portugal | 3.76 |
| 9 | Munich, Germany | 3.51 |
| 10 | Barcelona, Spain | 3.33 |
The cities which performed well after London were Amsterdam (9.63) and Rotterdam (8.73), coming in at second and third place. Car manufacturing powerhouse Germany also has multiple entries on the list, with Berlin (8.24), Hamburg (7.2) and Munich (3.51) all making the top ten.
Surprisingly, Oslo ranks just 6th despite Norway having more EV sales per capita than any other country in the world.
It’s also important to note that from 8th place in the rankings, the index scores drop to below 5. Barcelona, the last city in the top ten scores just 3.33.
At the bottom of the rankings, major cities such as Cape Town, Cairo, Sao Paulo and Seoul score an unimpressive 0. This is due to lack of charging points down to zero or low funding for EV initiatives.
Melissa Lyras, Brand and Communications Manager at Spotahome commented on the findings: “While it’s heartening to see strides being taken in major world cities to cater for the growing electric vehicle market, it’s evident there’s still a lot of work to do. If more cities invest in EV infrastructure they will help to facilitate growth in the market, improve air quality and the ultimately, the health and wellbeing of the people living there. London is a great example of a city succeeding in those goals, alongside other European countries who dominate the top ten.”
To see the full data for each city, including how they rate for other health-related categories, please visit Spotahome’s dedicated webpage.
