London plans to have more than 50,000 electric vehicle charging points by 2025

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and his Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Taskforce have some serious plans to transition London to zero-emissions transport as fast as possible — according to a report (link to full PDF) from the Mayor's office, the Government aims to provide Londoners with at least 50,000 electric vehicle charge points by 2025.

Above: A Tesla charging at a London Supercharger (Source: EV News Daily / Twitter)

According to the Mayor of London, the air quality is now the worst in the city's history. It turns out that Khan (himself) has developed asthma as an adult and the city's air pollution has contributed to it significantly. The Mayor and the local London government is now dedicated to improving the lives of current and upcoming generations by accelerating adoption to EVs and, in addition, transition the public transport infrastructure to electric.

As early as next year, the City of London aims to install 300 - 400 fast charge points and by 2025 the number of rapid chargers is aimed to increase to between 2,300 to 4,100 — another mix of slow to fast EV charging points are aimed from 3,400 - 4,700 in 2020 to 33,700 - 47,500 by the year 2025.

Above: Nissan Leaf at a public charger in London (Image: London Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Delivery Plan via X Auto)

Khan released the following statements as part of a long foreword to the 'London electric vehicle infrastructure delivery plan' (link to full PDF):

If we aspire to truly transform the quality of our air – and preside over a steep and meaningful reduction in our carbon emissions – we must move away from petrol and diesel cars, and towards electric and hydrogen vehicles. Bringing about this sea change won’t be easy, but with the right political will and ambition, I’m confident we can pull it off.

I’m proud that London is one of the first major cities in the world to publish a detailed and independently-assessed climate action plan that outlines how we will comply with the Paris Agreement. A big part of this plan is aiming for all new cars and vans on our roads to be zero emission from 2030.

Sadiq Khan also stated the following while addressing the launch of the 'London electric vehicle infrastructure delivery plan' at the Institution of Engineering and Technology earlier this week:

“We need to reject the fossil fuels of the past and embrace an electric revolution in London’s transport. To truly transform the quality of our air and to tackle the climate crisis London must move away from petrol and diesel cars, with their catastrophic impact on the environment, and towards zero-emission vehicles (full details on City of London's website).

Above: An electric vehicle charging station in the United Kingdom (Source: EV News Daily / Twitter)

These statements represent the dedication and level of ambitiousness which is needed from world leaders striving towards sustainability. Hopefully, London's important actions and the corresponding statement from the Mayor will inspire many others around the globe in a quest towards an expedited transition to electric vehicles.

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Written by: Iqtidar Ali. An earlier version of this article was originally published on X Auto.