Over a million people in the UK could be excluded from using EV vehicles as heavier and harder to handle charging cables make it more difficult for disabled drivers to make the switch.
In the Cable Weight Report, published by the Electric Vehicle Association for England (EVA England), 51% of disabled drivers rated Ultra-Rapid cables as hard or extremely hard to use, compared to just 21% of other drivers. Rapid chargers were also found to be hard to handle, with 53% of disabled drivers reporting difficulties, compared to just 10% of other drivers.
Vicky Edmonds, Chief Executive of EVA England, said: “The UK’s EV rollout is a major success story. But for over a million drivers with disabilities, it risks becoming one of exclusion. Heavy charging cables make public EV charging difficult or impossible for many. Though more than 80,000 public charge points are available across the UK, only a small number (2.3%) are considered accessible to disabled users.”
Chief executive of the Motability Foundation, Nigel Fletcher, added: “There is a serious risk of disabled people being left behind in the rollout of public EV charge points. From our own research, we know that heavy charging cables are one of the key barriers to accessible public charging, and this new report from EVA England highlights how significant an issue this is.”
An amendment to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill has been proposed by EVA England, the Motability Foundation and other EV organisations, calling for mandatory accessibility standards on all newly installed charging points.
Speaking on the amendment, Warren Phillips, chair of EVA England, said: “Accessibility standards are for everyone, not only drivers with disabilities.”
In a separate study conducted by Vauxhall, it was found that over a third of UK councils do not provide accessible EV charging facilities. Of the 289 councils that replied to the Freedom of Information (FOI) request, 111 said they had no on-street charge points designed for disabled access. This figure has remained unchanged since 2024, despite a 27% year-on-year increase in the total number of on-street chargers.
