The UK has always had something of a north-south divide. Discrepancies between the south of England, Northern England and Scotland present in various ways, from cultural and dialectical differences to fundamental differences in politics, political impacts and financial security.

Generally speaking, the South enjoys the most advantages when it comes to council-by-council funding, average salaries, infrastructural projects and even average individual salaries.

There are many factors in place that uphold this historic disparity, many of which politicians and regional figures are actively working to change. The devolution of governance to local and regional mayors in recent years has been proof positive of this work, though much work remains to be done – as evidenced by the newly emerging North/South divide in electric vehicle infrastructure. But what exactly is the nature of this divide, and what can be done to rectify it?

EV Infrastructure and the ‘Southern Advantage’

The rise and rise of the electric vehicle (EV) in the UK is a triumph of automotive engineering and climate policy in one. Stringent net-zero policies put forth by the UK government in the past decade have forced manufacturers to fast-track the development of efficient and practical EVs, helping the nation reduce its reliance on emissive internal combustion engines.

But with a new automotive norm in the battery-powered EV comes a new set of demands from the UK driving infrastructure. Just as petrol-powered cars are serviced by petrol stations, so too do EVs need servicing by fast-charging stations. The roll-out of accessible public charging stations has been slow in general, but the South currently enjoys a far higher concentration of stations than the north.

Work is already being done to redress the balance, with fast charger rollout in Yorkshire and the Humber far outweighing rollout in other regions. Charging is also cheaper in the North than in the South – but none of this matters if range remains a point of concern for motorists north of London. 

Impacts on EV Adoption

Indeed, the interconnectivity of the South and South-West by bountiful charging and fast-charging stations has made investment in EVs make more sense for southern-dwelling citizens. EVs remain an expensive outlier in the automotive world, with high upfront values that depreciate fast – necessitating further investment in gap insurance – and what is gap insurance if not the protection of an investment?

But in the north, such investments and protections make less sense – with the impact of actively harming national climate goals. Without the infrastructure to justify moving from petrol vehicles, the north will continue to rely on internal combustion engines, and hence continue to pollute their own regions.

Strategies to Bridge the Gap

With all this in mind, what can be done to bridge the gap? Work is already underway, and regional mayors are doing their best to improve elsewhere; Andy Burnham’s recent franchising of Manchester’s public transport network is a net win for sustainable transport in the north. Without more intervention from Parliament, though, EV infrastructure rollout will remain skewed.