Efforts to convince motorists to switch to electric cars are being undermined by the struggle to use public charging stations in areas of poor mobile phone reception.
Most chargers require use of a smartphone app, and while customers making 999 calls can roam across other providers’ networks, they cannot do so for any other reason.
A task force appointed by Boris Johnson has urged Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, to publish maps warning motorists when charging stations are in mobile “black spots” — areas without reception — or “not spots”, where one or more of the four UK networks — EE, Three, O2 and Vodafone — does not work.
A detailed study for the electric vehicle (EV) energy task force checked whether motorists were able to