EV Charging With No Driveway: Your Options in London

Yes, you can run an electric car in London without a driveway. There are four realistic ways to charge it: a council lamppost or kerbside charger, public fast chargers, a cross pavement gully that lets you charge from your own home supply, or a private space nearby. Which one suits you depends on your borough, how much you drive, and how much hassle you can live with.

You’re not alone in this. About 61% of London households have no off street parking, according to data quoted in a London Councils report. The catch is that your options change a lot from one borough to the next.

The figures below were checked in early October 2026. Councils change their rules often, so check your own borough’s page before you spend anything.

Your options at a glance

Why this is trickier in London

Most of the advice you’ll read online assumes you can bolt a charger to your wall and run a cable to the car. Terraces, flats and converted houses make that impossible, and your car is often parked a few doors down anyway.

The good news is that on street charging is growing quickly. Zapmap counted 38,959 on street charge points in the UK in the first half of 2026, up 18% on the year before, according to a July 2026 report. That’s national, not London only, but it shows which way things are heading.

Option 1: Council lamppost and kerbside chargers

This is the most common answer for London drivers. Your council works with an operator to put chargers on existing lampposts or in dedicated bays. In Wandsworth and Richmond, for example, the lamp column chargers are standard 5kW units run by ubitricity and char.gy.

How to get one near you. Most boroughs let you request a charger through an online form or survey. Hackney, for instance, opened a new survey in January 2026 and says over 2,400 earlier requests have shaped its network. It already has more than 1,200 charge points and wants 3,000 by 2030.

Don’t expect a quick yes, though. Wandsworth says it has several hundred outstanding requests, that it’s unlikely every one will be met, and that its next round of installs is planned for 2026/27. So ask, but have a plan B.

What it costs. Prices vary by borough and operator. In Waltham Forest, Shell Recharge lamp column chargers cost 44p to 66p per kWh depending on the time of day (April 2026). That’s roughly double what you’d pay at home.

How fast it is. Most lamppost chargers run at 3kW to 7kW. Zapmap says that usually means 6 to 12 hours to get from empty to 80%. That’s fine overnight, if you can actually get the bay.

A handy perk. Wandsworth and Richmond both say parking charges don’t apply in designated EV only bays while your car is plugged in.

The downsides. You can’t reserve the spot. If another EV is already plugged in, you’re out of luck. And the price per kWh stays high compared with home electricity.

Option 2: Cross pavement charging (the gully route)

This is the one worth knowing about, because it lets you charge from your own electricity supply at your own home rate.

A cross pavement solution is a narrow channel, often called a gully, set into the pavement. It carries your charging cable from a home charger on your wall to the car parked at the kerb. Because the cable runs inside the channel, nobody trips over it. Councils describe three main types: shallow surface channels, deeper open channels, and fully buried ones.

Which London boroughs offer it? It’s patchy, so treat this as a snapshot, not a full list:

• Bromley runs a home gully scheme. You pay a £100 non refundable application fee, the council surveys the site, and if you’re approved you pay £699 to install it, so £799 in total. Bromley doesn’t supply the charger. The council’s page lists the conditions. Among them: the footway must be council owned and even, you must regularly park legally outside your property, and the gully can’t go within 2 metres of a lamp column or through tree roots.
• Enfield has trialled a system, and London Councils lists it alongside Bromley as an early adopter.
• Richmond upon Thames says it has a footway channel scheme. Check the council’s page for how to apply.
• Waltham Forest currently doesn’t allow gullies. It cites footway safety and accessibility, maintenance, liability and electrical safety rules, and says it’ll review the position as national guidance develops.

So if you live in one of the first three, ask your council. If you don’t, it’s still worth checking, because more boroughs are looking at it. London Councils published guidance for boroughs in July 2025.

What it costs. You’re paying for the gully and for your own charger. Sources differ on the gully itself. London Councils’ guidance quotes £1,000 to £1,500, while other sources say £1,000 to £2,000. London Councils’ report puts total installation costs for residents at £1,750 to £7,000 depending on the setup. It’s a wide range, so get a firm quote before you commit. For what the charger and fitting side usually costs, see our EV charger installation cost page.

Picking the charger. You’ll want a smart charger on your wall so it can use cheap overnight rates. Our chargers page lists three OZEV approved options: the Ohme ePod, the Tesla Wall Connector and the Andersen Quartz. All three are described as smart tariff syncing 7.4kW chargers. Check that your model is on the grant’s approved list before you buy.

The £500 grant. The government’s on street parking grant covers 75% of the cost of buying and installing a charger socket, up to £500. It closes on 31 March 2027. To qualify, you need to:

• Own or rent your home and have no private off street parking
• Install a permanent cross pavement solution (temporary mats and covers don’t count)
• Own or lease an eligible electric vehicle, and not have claimed this grant before
• Get permission from your landlord or freeholder if you need it
• Get your local highways authority’s consent for the cross pavement work
• Use an OZEV approved installer and an approved charger

One source we found says the grant doesn’t cover the gully itself. Ask your installer exactly what the £500 applies to before you plan around it.

Roughly how the process runs:

1. Check your council’s website for a gully or cross pavement scheme.
2. Get any landlord or freeholder permission.
3. Get a quote from an OZEV approved installer.
4. Get the council’s highways consent.
5. Apply for the grant and wait for approval before any work starts.
6. Have the gully and charger installed, and your installer claims the grant.

Our EV charger grants guide covers the paperwork in more detail.

Please don’t trail a cable across the pavement

It’s tempting. You’ve got a socket by the front door and your car’s right there. But running a cable over a public pavement can breach the Highways Act 1980, and if someone trips, you’re liable.

Wandsworth and Richmond both say they’re not actively enforcing against safely protected cables for now. That isn’t permission, and it won’t help you if someone gets hurt. Wandsworth also advises having public liability insurance if you do it. We’d skip it and look at the options above instead.

Option 3: Public fast and rapid chargers

If you can’t get a lamppost charger or a gully, public chargers can still work, especially if you don’t drive much.

Zapmap’s August 2026 data puts the average pay as you go price at 54p per kWh on standard chargers and 77p on rapid chargers. Some networks come in lower. At Tesla Supercharger sites open to all drivers, the average is 63p. If the speeds and plug types confuse you, our guide to types of EV charging explains them.

A lot of people settle into a routine of one rapid charge a week at a supermarket or a hub, and that can work well. But if you charge entirely in public, the savings shrink. Zapmap’s own example of a driver who relies fully on public charging found no fuel saving over petrol, though he saved on car tax, servicing and maintenance. So an EV can still make sense, but run the numbers first.

Option 4: A private space nearby, or charging at work

Some drivers get around the problem by finding a spot elsewhere.

• A rented garage or parking bay. If the owner agrees, a charger can go in. You’ll need their permission, and the supply has to be sorted out properly. Our guide to EV charger installation in flats and rented properties covers the consent side. Our home EV charger installation service covers the fitting.
• A neighbour’s driveway. Some people agree to share. It can work, but agree how you’ll split the electricity bill and who’s responsible if something goes wrong.
• A dropped kerb and a front garden space. In parts of London, owners have turned a small front garden into a parking space with a dropped kerb. Our Wandsworth page mentions this as a common local setup. You’d need your council’s permission, it costs money, and not every property qualifies. But if it works, you’d have a proper off street space and could fit a normal wall charger.
• Your workplace. Ask your employer. Businesses can get up to £500 per socket under the Workplace Charging Scheme, so it’s a fair thing to raise. See our workplace EV charger installation page.

What each option really costs you

Here’s one year of charging for a driver doing 8,000 miles. We’ve assumed 0.301 kWh a mile, the UK average figure Octopus uses, so about 2,400 kWh a year.

For comparison, a 45 mpg petrol car at 174p a litre (the RAC average on 28 September 2026) works out at about 18p a mile.

The 7.6p rate is the Intelligent Octopus Go smart charging rate. It needs a compatible car or charger and a smart meter, and has a £50 early exit fee. Our smart EV chargers guide explains how smart charging works. The home price cap rate is Ofgem’s 26.32p per kWh for 1 October to 31 December 2026.

Is a gully worth it? Take a gully and charger that cost £2,000 all in. That’s our example figure, not a quote. Here’s how fast it pays back compared with a lamppost charger:

If you get the £500 grant against that £2,000, those payback times fall by about a quarter. And if lamppost charging near you is cheap and easy to use, the case for a gully gets weaker. It really pays off where public charging is pricey or hard to get.

So which option is right for you?

A few quick rules of thumb:

• You drive a lot and park outside your own door: Ask your council about a gully. It’s the cheapest way to charge by far.
• Your council doesn’t offer gullies: Request a lamppost charger and use public chargers while you wait.
• You drive very little: Public charging may be all you need, and you’d avoid the upfront cost.
• You’ve got access to a garage, bay or workplace charger: That could be your cheapest and easiest route.
• You’re still deciding whether to buy an EV: Work out how and where you’d charge before you sign for the car. The monthly saving can disappear if you rely on rapid chargers.

If you do end up with a charger at home, our post on whether a home EV charger is worth it goes through the payback sums in more detail.

The bottom line

Having no driveway doesn’t rule out an EV in London, but it does mean thinking about charging before you buy. A gully is the cheapest route where your borough allows it. Lamppost chargers are the next best, public chargers fill the gaps, and a private space or workplace charger can beat all of them.

If you’ve got a private space, a garage, a rented bay or a flat with parking, we can help with the charger side. Take a look at our home EV charger installation service or our services overview, or request a free quote. Not sure whether your property counts? Send us the details and we’ll tell you honestly.

Local help in London

EV Install Pro installs across London and the South East. These areas have their own pages with local details:

• Barnet
• Croydon
• Ealing
• Richmond upon Thames
• Sutton
• Tower Hamlets
• Waltham Forest
• Wandsworth
• Watford
• Westminster

Don’t see your borough? We cover all 32 London boroughs, so get in touch and we’ll confirm.

Sources

• GOV.UK, EV chargepoint grant for households with on street parking
• London Councils, cross pavement EV charging report (July 2025)
• Greenfleet, London guidance for cross pavement charging solutions
• Bromley Council, home gully charging
• Richmond Council, electric vehicles
• Waltham Forest Council, EV charging points
• Wandsworth Council, electric vehicles
• Hackney Council, EV charge point requests
• Zapmap, on street charging guide
• Zapmap Price Index, August 2026
• Business Motoring, on street charge point growth (Zapmap H1 2026)
• EV Tariff, cross pavement charging grant guide
• Ofgem, energy price cap unit rates
• Octopus Energy, Intelligent Octopus Go
• ITV News, RAC fuel prices, 28 September 2026