Coventry has more EV chargers than five Northern cities combined
There's a warning millions of people face "patchy provision" of charging infrastructure
Coventry has more public electric vehicle (EV) chargers than five major northern cities combined, according to new analysis.
EV buying advice website Electrifying.com, which conducted the research, warned that millions of people face "patchy provision" of charging infrastructure, making it "impossible" for some to switch from petrol or diesel cars.
It called for a "joined-up, national approach" to the rollout of public EV chargers, which is currently overseen by local authorities.
The analysis found drivers living in the northern cities of Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield share a combined 2,485 public chargers, whereas those in the West Midlands city of Coventry have 2,578.
Electrifying.com attributed Coventry's high total to its "collaborative, focused approach".
The London borough of Westminster alone has 2,746 public chargers.
The figures are based on analysis of Department for Transport (DfT) data.
Chief executive of Electrifying.com, Ginny Buckley, said: "The scale of the disparity is impossible to ignore.
"Coventry has over 750 chargers per 100,000 people, every one of the northern five has fewer than 100, and Westminster tops the chart with more than 1,300.
"Not a single area in the top 10 is in the North, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
"It's about consistency.
"Some councils are innovating with charging gullies and street solutions, while others can't get schemes off the ground.
"We urgently need a joined-up, national approach that gives local authorities the guidance, expertise and confidence to install the right chargers in the right places.
"Without that, the EV transition will be fair for some and impossible for others."
Chief executive of chargepoint supplier char.gy, John Lewis, said many areas "want to deliver" a large number of public EV chargers, but are "held back by a variety of factors, such as planning and grid capacity".
He went on: "Funding matters, but it doesn't fix these bottlenecks.
"If we want to end the postcode lottery, we need to give every council what Coventry already has: the confidence and capacity to get chargers in the ground quickly and in the right places."
A DfT spokesperson said: "We're backing drivers with over £7.5 billion to speed up the switch to electric - installing a new public charger every 33 minutes, with the fastest growth happening outside London in places like Yorkshire, Wales, the West Midlands and the East of England.
"In the Autumn Budget, the Chancellor announced an additional £200 million funding for accelerating the rollout of electric vehicle charging.
"This includes £100 million funding for local authorities to support the training and deployment of specialist staff, accelerating the rollout of public chargepoints."
Tom Hunt, who chairs the Local Government Association's inclusive growth committee, said: "Many councils are keen to support local residents who want to switch to EVs, and many work actively with public chargepoint operators and the Government to ensure sufficient charging infrastructure to support the long term transition to zero-emission cars.
"Councils weigh up many different aspects in this process, including competing demands on road space, parking capacity, safety, accessibility and council resources, as well as transport policy."