Thousands of free electric car chargers have disappeared from Britain’s roads over the past year, with rising energy costs being blamed for making them unaffordable to offer.

The Telegraph quotes Zapmap figures which show number of chargers offering free electricity has fallen from 5,715 a year ago to 3,568, a drop of almost 40%, meaning they now make up fewer than one in 10 public chargers on Britain’s roads, compared to one in five a year ago.

Zapmap monitors installations across the UK, with its figures used by the Government to publish official data on charging points.

The Telegraph comments that free charging points were installed by supermarkets and car park operators as a way to attract owners of battery-powered vehicles, but wholesale electricity prices spiked last year amid concerns about energy security.

(Picture – Highways News)