UK Seeing Rapid Growth Of EV Charging Infrastructure

Highlights

• The number of publicly-accessible charge points reached a total of 28,375 as of January 2022.
• There is an increase of 37% in terms of new public charging devices as of January 2022.
• The number of rapid charging devices have also increased by 33% as of January 2022.

The UK charging infrastructure is showing impressive growth with the new charging points adding up at a rapid pace. The public charging devices in the UK have increased in number since 1st January 2021. According to the electric vehicle and charging point platform Zap-Map, there has been an increase of 37% in terms of new public charging devices which corresponds to 7,600 new charger installations while the number of rapid charging devices have increased by 33% making up to 1,276 new installations. As of 1 January 2022, the total number of publicly-accessible plug-in points in the UK were 28,375 out of which 5,156 were rapid chargers.

As per the latest statistics published by the Department for Transport, UK, the number of public charging devices has grown rapidly since 2015. The data coming from the Department For Transport shown below depicts the growth of the UK's public charging devices and rapid charging devices in the last 7 years.

Graph Source: gov.uk

*Growth in the UK's public charging infrastructure in the last 7 years

Graph Source: gov.uk

*Growth in the UK's rapid devices in the last 7 years

According to the press release published by the Department of transport, there is an uneven geographical distribution of charging devices mainly due to some UK local authorities bidding for government funding for the installation of new charging devices and others failing to do so. The press release also adds that “Most of the provision of this infrastructure has been market-led, with individual charging networks and other businesses (such as hotels) choosing where to install devices.”

According to data published by the Department for Transport, the average provision in the UK was 42 devices per 100,000 people. The statistics below shows that the availability of charging devices in London grew significantly in 2021. By the end of 2020, there were 69 devices per 100,000 people and it has grown significantly to 102 devices by the start of this year. The capital city of London has been leading the way for charge point availability in comparison to other regions in the country. The next best region in terms of charging device availability is Scotland with 52 devices per 100,000 people as of 1 January 2022 .

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Northern Ireland has the lowest rate in charging plug-points with 18 devices per 100,000 population rising from 17 to 18 in the previous year followed by North West and Yorkshire & the Humber with 24 and 26 devices per 100,000 respectively.

Graph Source: gov.uk

*Total public charging devices in each region per 100k people

Coming to rapid chargers, the average rapid device provision in the UK was 7.7 per 100,000. Scotland had the highest rate with 12.9 devices per 100,000 people while London had only 8 per 100,000 people. The lowest rate was for Northern Ireland and Wales, with 1.2 and 5.3 rapid devices per 100,000 people respectively.

Graph Source: gov.uk

*Rapid device availability in each region

The overall statistics show that the EV charging points in the UK have exhibited a five fold increase in the last five years. The transition to zero-emissions vehicles is fast-approaching and support from both public & private sectors will be essential to expand EV charging infrastructure in the UK for a sustainable future.