Weston car park faces structural collapse risk from EV weight, council warns

North Somerset Council has warned that Carlton Street Car Park in Weston-super-Mare could begin to collapse if four electric vehicles park together on its upper levels, which have been closed since 2023. The council lost £250,000 on the facility in 2024/25 and is locked into a lease until 2058. Officers have recommended spending £2.6 million on repairs to reopen upper floors with reduced capacity to prevent overloading from EVs, which are approximately one third heavier than petrol and diesel vehicles.

Why it matters: The structural limitations of existing car parks built before the EV transition may force councils and operators to invest in costly retrofits or capacity reductions, affecting the business case for on-site charging infrastructure. This case highlights a hidden infrastructure challenge as EV adoption scales: older multi-storey facilities may require structural assessments before CPOs can safely deploy charging points.