The tourist town of Caernarfon in Gwynedd is currently struggling with a lack of public electric vehicle (EV) charging points. With a large population of 10,000 and hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, the town does not have a fully functioning public charging point, with the only fast charger having broken months ago. Furthermore, eight council-installed charging points have never been connected to the electricity grid, leaving drivers searching online maps for EV charging points describing the area as a “charging desert”.
Low carbon innovation expert Dr Debbie Jones has commented on the issue, stating that it highlights the need for the expansion of EV charging networks across Wales. With the UK government aiming to end the sale of new fossil-fuelled cars in the country by 2035, this issue is set to become increasingly problematic. Currently, there are 49,000 EV charge points in the UK, with 42,500 of those in England, resulting in metropolitan London boasting the highest number of charging points per population.
Wales is currently ranked third in charging points per population and has Ceredigion, with 175 places per 100,000 people, as the county with the highest number of EV charging points per head. Neath Port Talbot, on the other hand, has the fewest charging points in Wales with just 15.5 charging points for every 100,000 residents. However, statistics such as these do not paint the full picture for consumers, with Caernarfon being cited as a prime example.
Gwynedd, as a county, is placed within the top five counties for charging points in Wales, with 124 per 100,000 people, but of the 145 charging points spread across the two Senedd seats that make up Gwynedd, just 39 are in the Arfon constituency–including Caernarfon and the university city of Bangor. The local authority, Cyngor Gwynedd, has promised to better the public charging position by developing over 100 charging points in the area within a few months. However, the Victoria Dock back-charing points, along with other promising ones, have yet to be connected to a working electricity supply despite being installed in the summer
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