NEWPORT council plans to massively increase the number of electric vehicle (EV) public charging stations in the near future.

Forecasts show nearly every car in the city will be electric by the 2040s, a decade after the UK Government plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles.

By then, Newport residents will collectively own an estimated 90,000 electric vehicles, dwarfing the roughly 76,000 cars currently in the city.

And while the number of publicly-available charging points per capita is currently higher than the Wales and UK averages, the council is preparing to invest in developing the city's EV charging infrastructure to cope with this expected rise in demand for electric vehicles, and encourage more people to make the switch.

Council documents show "many residential streets in Newport do not have off-street parking in order to be able to charge an electric vehicle", and notes research that "a lack of charging stations is the biggest inhibitor" to people buying an EV.

"If we do not invest in better charging infrastructure then this will slow the uptake of electric vehicles in Newport, which is already low, given that Wales has one of the lowest rates of ULEV (ultra low-emissions vehicles) ownership in the UK," a council report reads. "This will have a knock-on effect on the ability of Newport to reduce its carbon emissions."

There is some cause for optimism. According to the council, the city now has 27 rapid chargers and 64 public fast chargers, and demand on the EV charging network in Newport has increased tenfold in the past decade.

A council study, however, predicted "that if Newport was on a balanced net-zero pathway, the city would need to have 408 public accessible charge points by the end of 2022 and 597 by the end of 2023, including 95 on street charge points and 91 rapid chargers with the remaining chargers being fast chargers".

"Although good progress has been made, the actual numbers are currently short of this target," the council report reads. "Therefore, the planned work for the next three financial years must be ambitious."

There are aims "for there to be over 150 publicly-owned fast chargers in Newport" by the "end of 2023".

The council now intends to open a public consultation on its new EV Charging Strategy later this month.

Solutions could be increasing the number of on- and off-street charging facilities, as well as opening public charging points in places like railway stations, council-run workplaces, and car parks.