Just over a tenth of electric car charging points needed in the UK have been built so far, the BBC has learned.

Only 700 of the 5,000 required by the end of the year are in place and two-thirds of towns with a population of over 150,000 do not have any public charging infrastructure.

David Martell, of charging supplier Chargemaster, said the lack of points can be very stressful for drivers.

The Department of Transport said it plans to install 9,000 points by 2013.

It said it has also provided up to £30m to kick-start installation in 'test-bed' areas.

There are about 30 million vehicles on British roads - 3,000 of which are electric vehicles.

Mr Martell said many electric vehicle drivers suffer from "range anxiety", which concerns their fear that they run the risk of running out of power due to a lack of charging points.

"It's a concern. It's a barrier to some people," he said.

Experts say that nearly two million of the cars on Britain's roads will be electric powered by 2020.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13326029

Wow, didn't see that one coming

I saw some outside Best Buy the other day. The first time I've ever seen them.

What a waste of time.

You get them in some NCPs - London Wall for example. Excellent idea... if only we weren't running on fossil fuel power stations

I wonder if people would be convinced that coal power will save the earth from doom if we just paint it all green?

You get the green paint, I'll work on the carbon capture technology.

I'll have to source some lead free biodegradable stuff then.

I was going to say...

Isn't paint derived from crude oil also?

Not all of it. We've been painting things for a lot longer than we've been digging up oil...

Jon

Well not good news for seals or whales. That oil has to come from somewhere.

I don't think they have seals or whales in the dordogne. As far as I remember paint = pigment + medium and the oil is part of the medium. I'm sure we could get a useful medium in a sustainable way if necessary. The question is more can we get a natural pigment hard enough to stay put on the car.

Jon

Charging points is one part of the problem. The other is the time in which it takes to properly charge a car.

This is all a red herring - an evolutionary cul-de-sac while we wait for the hydrogen fuel cells to appear.

Indeed.

I have always thought this about full electric cars.

They are the MiniDisc until we get the CD.

blood from chavs?

Exactly right.

Move along - there's nothing to see here.

I think that there may be many other sources like vegetable oils, for starters. I am in favour of electric vehicles. Even with the range restrictions it might actually encourage better train services for long distance travel, and might actually make people reconsider commuting any way.