Croydon has 439 public chargers and half its homes have no driveway. The plan targets 4,200 by 2035, below its own forecast. Consultation closes 28 September.

Croydon is consulting on how it expands electric vehicle charging in the borough, and residents have until 11.59pm on Monday 28 September to respond. The council’s own draft strategy contains figures its announcement did not: a delivery target of 4,200 charge points by 2035, against a forecast need that runs as high as 12,500.

The announcement came on 18 August. The document behind it, Croydon’s Electric Vehicle Charging Point Strategy 2026 to 2030, runs to 28 pages and is worth reading before you answer.

Where Croydon is now

From the draft strategy:

  • 439 public charge points installed across the borough. Of these, 374 are standard or fast and 65 are rapid or ultra-rapid.
  • 136,400 cars and vans in the borough, of which 4,800 are battery electric and 3,500 are other electric or hybrid types.
  • 49% of Croydon households have no access to off-street parking, so cannot charge at home on a domestic tariff.
  • Of that 49%, 57% are within a five-minute walk of a public charge point. The other 43% are not.

One detail worth noting. The council’s announcement says 439 charge points were available “as of July 2026”. The strategy document says: “As of December 2025, there at least 439 public electric vehicle charging points (EVCPs) installed across the borough.” Same figure, seven months apart. The document is the source, and it is the older of the two dates.

The target is lower than the announcement suggests

The press release says forecasts suggest “around 4,500 charge points will be needed by 2035”. The strategy is less tidy than that, and the difference matters.

  • Its introduction refers to “a target of approximately 4,500 charging points by 2035”.
  • Its modelling says forecasts project “a need for between 4,000 and 12,500 EVCPs required across Croydon by 2035”, depending on the mix of charger types delivered.
  • Its delivery section commits to something different again: “We will seek to deliver a blended model of chargepoint roll out to deliver 4,200 EVCPs by 2035.”

So the planned delivery figure is 4,200. That sits at the bottom of the forecast range. If demand lands towards the upper end of the council’s own modelling, the plan delivers about a third of what is needed.

Chart showing 439 public charge points installed in Croydon as of December 2025, a council delivery target of 4,200 by 2035, and a forecast need ranging from 4,000 to 12,500.
The council plans to deliver 4,200 charge points by 2035. Its own forecast range runs to 12,500. Graphic by Croydon Today.

The council is also candid about what it can pay for: “The council does not have its own funding to contribute to the expansion of EVCPs across Croydon but is able to lead and leverage grant funding to secure private investment.” One or more chargepoint operators would be appointed to identify sites and install the chargers.

What is actually being funded

  • LEVI. Croydon is working with Bexley, Havering and Bromley on a joint project under the government’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure fund. The council’s announcement puts its share at £950,000 through to 2028. A minimum of 80% of charge points delivered with LEVI money must be installed on-street.
  • Lamp column charging. LEVI funding will be used primarily for chargers fitted to existing street lights, which the strategy says minimises additional street furniture and suits overnight residential charging.
  • Cross-pavement channels. Croydon has been allocated, and applied for, £193,000 to deliver gullies that let residents run a cable across the pavement to a car on the street. The council anticipates that covers roughly 160 pavement channels. Before that, it will run a pilot of about 10 installations, primarily with identified disabled drivers and Motability customers who have an EV and a dedicated disabled bay outside their home.

Pricing, who operates the chargers and the terms of use are not settled. The strategy says those operational details will be worked out during delivery, informed by the consultation.

What it means for you

If you have no driveway, this is the consultation that decides whether a charger appears on your street. The strategy says sites will be identified using mapping of areas lacking off-street parking, postcode data and EV uptake projections, “combined with resident requests and feedback from stakeholders, including residents, councillors and Council teams”. A request now is evidence later. One of the council’s own short-term actions is to “identify areas that are currently more than 5 minutes active travel from a chargepoint”.

If you are waiting on a cross-pavement gully, note the scale. Around 160 channels are anticipated across a borough where roughly half of households have no driveway. The first 10 go to disabled drivers with a dedicated bay.

If you drive an EV and use public chargers, pricing is the open question. Drivers who can charge at home pay domestic rates; those who cannot are on public tariffs. The strategy acknowledges the gap without resolving it, which makes it a fair thing to comment on.

To respond, the consultation is at evcp-consultation.commonplace.is and closes at 11.59pm on 28 September 2026. The draft strategy and a question-and-answer section sit on the same site.

Croydon Today publishes the borough’s planning applications and parking information as standing pages, and both are updated as the council’s own records change.

Sources