Targeted roll-out could cut the number of new public EV chargers cities need to build by a quarter
July 16, 2026
A new Clean Cities study of London, Madrid, Paris and Warsaw finds that cities have taken different approaches to rolling out public charge points, and that policy choices matter more than charger counts: targeted planning offers a common recipe to meet future demand efficiently, limiting the amount of infrastructure required, reducing costs, freeing up public space and making public charging work for people who cannot charge at home.
The main findings are:
- Provision and deployment strategies vary widely across the four cities, from 5.3 public charge points per 1,000 residents in Paris to 3.2 in Greater London, 1.0 in Madrid and 0.5 in Warsaw, reflecting the relative use of faster charging in Madrid and Warsaw.
- All four cities need major expansion by 2030 and 2035 to meet anticipated demand, but poorly planned growth risks piling pressure onto already crowded streets.
- Smart planning can cut the number of chargers cities need to build by more than a quarter, if cities steer charging towards workplaces, destinations and home or private parking where possible, make greater use of higher-power charging, and pair this with a modest reduction in car ownership.
- Poor roll-out can reinforce urban inequality: charge points tend to cluster in central, commercially attractive districts, while outer and some lower-income neighbourhoods are often underserved.
- The key test is whether people without a driveway can charge: just 21% of Europe’s electric car drivers live in a flat, against 44% of conventional car drivers. This suggests electric cars have a lower take-up by this group and need to be given special attention in charging infrastructure strategies.
Public electric vehicle (EV) charging can either support the shift to cleaner, more liveable cities or, if it grows in a poorly planned way, entrench inequality, clutter streets and lock in car dependency. That is the central message of a new Clean Cities analysis: the difference lies less in how many chargers a city builds than in how well the rollout is planned.
The report, Taking Charge, compares public EV charging infrastructure in Greater London, Paris, Madrid and Warsaw. The four cities are at very different stages and have taken very different routes, from dense networks of slow on-street charging in Paris and London to fewer, faster hubs in Warsaw and Madrid. Cities’ contrasting starting points offer a set of shared, transferable lessons for cities across Europe.
Policy choices will be critical to meet future demand in a cost-effective and equitable way. Steering demand towards workplaces, destinations and private or home charging where possible, alongside greater use of higher-power charging, cuts the number of public charge points needed by around a fifth. Combine that with a 10% reduction in car use, an ambition several European cities have already met through better public transport, cycling and shared mobility, and the required build-out falls by more than a quarter by both 2030 and 2035.
None of this removes the need to expand. Every one of the four cities must grow its network substantially before 2030, and further by 2035 to meet the needs of growing electric vehicle fleets. But the number of chargers is only part of the story. The real test is whether charging is affordable, reliable and available where people actually need it, especially for residents in flats or terraced housing who cannot charge easily at home. According to the EU’s 2023 consumer monitor, being unable to charge at home is among the most cited drawbacks of going electric, and drivers who lack a private driveway risk being left behind as the transition accelerates.
Barbara Stoll, Senior Director and Co-founder of Clean Cities, said:
“Cities should not have to choose between clean air and liveable streets. With the right policy choices, charging can support the shift to electric mobility while freeing up public space, cutting costs and making sure no-one is left behind. But left unplanned, it risks locking us into a more expensive, more unequal and more cluttered future.”
The report calls on city governments to develop charging masterplans (see note 4, below) that map demand district by district and prioritise areas most dependent on public charging. It also urges cities to steer charging away from the kerb where possible, including into workplaces, retail car parks, and residential garages.
[2] The study covers battery-electric passenger cars and individual vans
[3] Plug-in hybrids are excluded because they charge far less often than battery-electric vehicles and are expected to make up a declining share of the fleet over the study period. Taxis, private hire vehicles, heavy-duty vehicles and bus fleets
are also outside the scope, as they represent a small share of the fleet and rely on separate, often dedicated, charging infrastructure suited to their specific use cases.
[4] An earlier report in this series From Plan to Plug, offers cities a practical pathway for charging rollout
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