Just 0.003% of EV charge points in UK are accessible to disabled drivers
Charities and organizations fire at the poor charging infrastructure that leaves the disabled behind
Story byIoanna Lykiardopoulou
Ioanna is a writer at TNW. She covers the full spectrum of the European tech ecosystem, with a particular interest in startups, sustainabili(show all)Ioanna is a writer at TNW. She covers the full spectrum of the European tech ecosystem, with a particular interest in startups, sustainability, green tech, AI, and EU policy. With a background in the humanities, she has a soft spot for social impact-enabling technologies.
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Charities and organizations express dismay
Auto Expressspoke with charity and mobility organizations, who all voiced serious concerns and painted a gloomy picture of the current state of EV chargers.
According to Fazilet Hadi, head of policy at Disability Rights UK:
The charity is also worried that without proper legislationthe UK’s public charging network will be left in the hands of commercial organizations.
Adding to that,Disabled Motoring UK CEO Graham Footer noted that if the government doesn’t act fast, it’s going to cost it a lot of money to remedy the situation in the future.
Disabled Motoring UK also exposed the challenges disabled drivers face during an audit of Brighton and Hove City Council’s public charging points.
There was too small a room to unload wheelchairs on the charging bays, and even when that was possible, they were obstructed by narrow pavements and the lack ofdropped curbs.
The chargers themselves were often too tall, which means that screens couldn’t be seen clearly from a seated position, while charging sockets and cables were mostly placed too high, which made it difficult to extract them. Not to mention that there was no appropriate lighting, audio-visual support or signage.
Disabled drivers would like to switch to EVs, but…
Some 54% of disable drivers, who participated in asurveyagain by RiDC, saidthat lifting the charging cable from the boot and then closing it would be either “difficult” or “very difficult” to do.
A further 41% fear that they would struggle to manoeuvre the cable at the charge point, and two-thirds (66%) expressed their concerns over hazards and barriers both around the car and the chargers.
Overall, 61% of disabled non-EV drivers would consider making the switchonlyif charging was made more accessible.
Do EVs excite your electrons? Do ebikes get your wheels spinning? Do self-driving cars get you all charged up?
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