Europe's biggest wireless charging trial begins in London

At the Seoul Climate Change Summit in 2009 the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, announced plans to make London the ‘electric car capital of Europe’ by 2015 ― with 100,000 electric vehicles (EVs) on the city’s streets, served by 25,000 charging points.

Progress has been made with EVs, but the fact remains that only 588 EVs were registered in London since the 2009 announcement, giving a total of 2,313.

With regards to charging points, there are now 400 across London, with a target of 1,300 by next year ― the 25,000 marker quietly dropped.

In a statement in February this year, Murad Qureshi, chairman of the Environment Committee at the London Assembly, summed up the situation, saying that they must demonstrate ‘the charging network is adequate and fits with the way people will actually charge their vehicles’ and that ‘it is unclear at the moment whether it is delivering value for money given the sums already spent on it’.