A new public chargepoint for electric vehicles (EVs) is being installed every 25 minutes in the UK – roughly keeping pace with the expanding market for the new vehicles, a lobby group has said.
The new figures come as a welcome reprieve after years of warnings that EV infrastructure was not being installed at the rates needed to meet climate targets. In 2021, a study even warned that that the installation of chargers would need to increase by five times the rate at the time if the plan to phase out petrol vehicles by 2030 was to be achieved.
But ChargeUK’s latest analysis shows that there are now over 930,000 public, home and work chargers supporting around 1.1 million EVs – or nearly one charger for every EV. The group launched in April 2023 to represent 18 of the largest companies responsible for installing, operating and supporting the UK’s chargepoint infrastructure.
It said that today’s network is capable of delivering nearly seven gigawatts of power every day – enough to enable every...