Looking to vacation somewhere in the UK and drive an electric car? Beaches and historic town centers aside, you may want to consider one of the cities at the top of Elmo Drive’s rankings of UK cities friendly to EVs. (That said, let’s be honest — all you need is one hotel or Airbnb with a charger in order to be set. It doesn’t matter if there are 500 other places of temporary accommodation with charging stations. Nonetheless, rankings are fun, and this is a particularly interesting one.)
Airbnb inspired the Elmo Drive analysis when it announced that 850,000+ Airbnb accommodations now have EV charging access. To complete the analysis, Elmo Drive — which is an EV subscription company in the UK — did a filtered search on Airbnb and on Booking.com.
Top cities in UK for an EV stay — based on hotels and Airbnb locations with EV charging stations. Image courtesy of Elmo Drive.
London, unsurprisingly, topped the charts as the city with the most hotels and Airbnbs offering EV charging (879 such accommodations). Doncaster was second (274 EV-friendly locations), nearby York was third (156), and coastal cities Bournemouth (147) and Southend-on-Sea (135) were fourth and fifth. I’d be drawn to the coastal cities, but I’m sure they all have something to offer.
But that’s the total number of locations with EV charging facilities. Clearly, London also has a lot more people within its borders than Southend-on-Sea or Doncaster. What about a ranking relative to population? Elmo Drive did that as well. Three of those top 5 remained in the top 5, actually taking all top 3 spots. Doncaster was #1 in this ranking, followed by York and Bournemouth. Southend-on-Sea was #7, while London wasn’t in the top 10.
Top cities in UK for an EV stay — based on hotels and Airbnb locations with EV charging stations per capita. Image courtesy of Elmo Drive.
Here’s a little more info on the per-capita winner: “Doncaster ranks top, with 173.2 EV-friendly places to stay per 100,000 people. Despite offering only three hotels with charge points, the city is best prepared for welcoming visitors with an electric car. Doncaster plays host to a variety of attractions, such as Conisbrough Castle and the ever-popular Doncaster racecourse, leaving you with plenty to do on your visit.” What’s fascinating to me there is that only 3 hotels in Doncaster offer EV charging yet it is #1! This shows how powerful a good community of Airbnb hosts can be.
Wherever you decide to vacation or at least spend a night or two in the UK, it is certainly easiest to find a place with overnight EV charging.
The UK has become one of the hottest markets in the world for electric vehicles. In September, 22.4% of new vehicle sales were sales of plugin vehicles — 16.9% of new vehicle sales were sales of fully electric cars & SUVs. That’s up from 15.2% and 6.4%, respectively, in September 2021. The Tesla Model Y was the second best selling passenger vehicle in the UK — among vehicles with all powertrains or fuel sources.
If you live or have vacationed in the UK with an electric car, let us know down in the comments your favorite locations for an overnight stay, or for charging in general.
Featured image courtesy of Elmo Drive.
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