Electric car usage in Yorkshire: These are the areas with the highest number of ultra low emission vehicles and the fewest charging points

Government figures show a major skew towards London and the south-east of England - where take-up of electric cars is four times higher than in the north.

There are also four times the number of charging points in London than there are available in Yorkshire.

A breakdown of the data reveals differences in the attitudes of towns and cities in Yorkshire towards ultra low emission vehicle ownership - and the investment local authorities have made in charging points.

Only one area has a higher percentage of private vehicles registered as being electric than the national average of 1.42 per cent - Leeds. Four more - Sheffield, York, Harrogate and Doncaster - are above one per cent.

Leeds recorded 4.29 per cent of vehicles as being electric - a city-wide total of 474,300 cars.

Leeds recorded over 20,000 electric and hybrid registrations in July 2021, and Sheffield over 3,000 - and areas such as Bradford, Doncaster, Kirklees, Wakefield, York, the East Riding and Harrogate all showed an uptick in interest with over 1,000 new registrations each in the same month.

The local authorities with the lowest percentage of electric car usage are Hull, Barnsley, Richmondshire, Rotherham and Scarborough, all with below 0.06 per cent.

Craven, Hambleton, Richmondshire, Ryedale, Scarborough and Selby all have fewer than 100,000 ultra low emission cars on the road, with rural Richmondshire having the lowest registrations at 36,500.

Craven, however, has by far the highest number of charging points in the district per head of population - with 26 stations, there are 45 for every 100,000 people, well above the national average of 36. Ryedale, with 27, has 48 charging points per 100,000 drivers and York has 79 across the city - or 37 per 100,000.

Selby has the overall lowest number of docking stations - just six, which also equates to six per 100,000 people - and other low scorers were Richmondshire with 18 and Scarborough with 20.

Leeds has the highest number of available charging points with 227, followed by Sheffield with 124 and Bradford, which has recently invested in new infrastructure, with 106.

Barnsley, Hull and Kirklees joined Selby with the lowest number of stations per 100,000 head, all with 14 or fewer.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority used funding from the Office of Zero Vehicle Emissions to install a network of new charging points to increase uptake - including stations reserved for taxi drivers. They collaborated with councils covering Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield as part of the project, meaning West Yorkshire now has 88 new rapid charge stations across the county. They were placed in council car parks, sports centres, Asda supermarkets and hospitals.