EV Airbnb: Brighton and Hove and Chichester named as top staycation cities for electric vehicle drivers

New research has revealed where in the UK holiday homes with EV chargers are most prolific.

Brighton and Hove has been named the fourth best city, with 61 holiday lets available, while Chichester has placed at number six with 57.

In the past week alone, there has been a 300% increase in searches for ‘EV Airbnb’, demonstrating a growing demand for holiday homes where chargers for electric vehicles are available.

With the UK’s electric vehicle (EV) market continuing to grow and the Government’s 2030 deadline to halt the sale of new petrol and diesel cars, more and more holiday homeowners are taking steps to accommodate guests that have an EV; and demand from guests for properties that provide EV chargers is also growing.

After noticing a 300 per cent increase in searches for ‘EV Airbnb’ on Google Trends over the past week, EV charger manufacturers GoZeroCharge aimed to uncover which cities around the UK are the most EV-friendly in terms of the availability of nearby holiday lets that specified they had an EV charger for guests to use.

Using Airbnb, the team analysed each city in the UK and are able to reveal the following top ten cities with the best availability of holiday homes with EV chargers:

London – 452

York – 110

Truro – 74

Brighton & Hove – 61

Bath – 60

Chichester – 57

Manchester – 54

Oxford – 45

Bristol - 45

Gloucester – 42

The searches were carried out with ‘EV charger’ and ‘entire home’ filters applied, with the dates set to ‘any week’ to avoid restricting results due to availability. Searches were set for a minimum of two adult guests, with the search area focused on each city centralised and the same level of zoom applied.

Peter O’Brien, CMO at GoZeroCharge, said: “As our EV charger, the Optimus, is custom made to support holiday homes, it’s no surprise we are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of Airbnb and holiday let owners getting in touch to have an Optimus EV charger unit installed.

"The Optimus enables guests to charge when they like whilst providing a profitable supplemental income to the Airbnb host. All too often, guests are charging their EVs without permission and at a high cost to the property owner. Not only does this present fire, security and insurance risks, but these unexpected increases to energy bills in the cost-of-living crisis can be a huge cause of stress.

“It’s great to see that there are already a large number of holiday homes advertising EV charger availability for guests, because as EVs grow in popularity the infrastructure has to exist to support them. Whilst, as the capital, we expected London to be leading the way, it was great to see York as the second-best city for EV holiday let staycations and hotspots like Truro, Brighton and Bath leading the way.

"Each city in the top 10 offers a rich mix of history, culture and things to see and do; and for EV drivers to know that they have lots of options for a nearby holiday home where charging won’t be a hassle is a great bonus!”