The rate at which electric vehicle (EV) charge points are being installed in the UK has significantly picked up this year.
Zapmap, a charge point mapping service, has confirmed that the UK now has more than 50,000 EV charging points.
Reaching the 50,000 charge point milestone this month comes just eight months after the UK surpassed the 40,000 mark.
To put that in context, it took exactly a year to move from 30,000 to 40,000 charge points and 17 months to move from 20,000 charge points to 30,000.
Looking ahead, given the current rate of installation, Zapmap estimates that the UK is likely to reach 100,000 charging devices in August 2025.
Melanie Shufflebotham, co-founder and chief operating officer at Zapmap, said: “Hitting 50,000 public charging devices is a really important milestone for the country and illustrates the sea change behind the increased rate of charge point installations.
“Having passed 40,000 charge points in February, our predictions are that there will be 100,000 chargers by August 2025 – which would certainly be a major achievement.
“Alongside the number of high-power charging hubs in the UK more than doubling in the past year, as we saw last week, these are changes that bring real benefits to electric car drivers up and down the country.”
Operated by MFG EV Power, the 50,000th charging device to be installed was an ultra-rapid device at a service station in Weston-super-Mare.
Zapmap’s quarterly statistics showed that the number of ultra-rapid charge points in the UK has increased by 68% since September 2022, with the number of slow chargers increasing by almost 68% as well.
There was also a marked increase in the number of EV charging hubs, with a 123% increase in locations which have six or more rapid/ ultra-rapid devices.
Ian Johnson, chair of ChargeUK, added: “This is a significant milestone and a testament to the investment, vision and hard work of our members.
“The rate of deployment is increasing all the time, in the last 12 months alone the public charge point network has increased by 43%. However, we can go further and faster with the right policies and help from government to remove barriers that constrain the roll-out.
“Public chargers are part of a wider picture. The way people charge their EV depends on their lifestyle, many people charge at home, others charge on their street, whilst many will either charge at destinations or en-route on their journeys.
“Our members are focussed on ensuring drivers have access to the right charger in the right place.”
Last month, as part of a wider speech on net zero targets, prime minister Rishi Sunak announced that he will delay banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by five years to 2035. Part of his justification for doing so was the speed of the EV charging rollout, which he claimed had “failed to move at the necessary speed” to put the required charging points in place.
This week, however, Labour has confirmed that it would be reversing Sunak’s delay, with shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds revealing that Labour would set up a £950 million “rapid charging fund” with councils given clear targets to hit.
To read Utility Week’s analysis of Sunak’s net zero speech, click here.