Over 50,000 electric car charging points installed in the UK

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【Summary】The UK now has over 50,000 public charge points for electric cars, with a 43% growth compared to last year. Both slow and ultra-rapid chargers have seen a 68% increase. By the end of 2026, the country is expected to reach 100,000 charge points. Weston-super-mare is home to the 50,000th device, an ultra-rapid charge point. The UK government is drafting new regulations that will categorize chargers into different power ratings.

FutureCar Staff Oct 12, 2023 4:18 PM PT

Over 50,000 electric car charging points installed in the UK

The UK has surpassed 50,000 public charge points for electric cars, according to Zapmap data. This represents a 43% growth in all types of charge points compared to 2022 figures. The most installed chargers are slow and ultra-rapid types, which have both increased by 68% during the same period. Zapmap predicts that by the end of 2026, the UK will reach the milestone of 100,000 charge points.

For context, the UK currently has 8,365 fuel stations. The fact that the 40,000th charge point installation was reached in February of this year indicates an acceleration in the rollout of public charge points. It took a full year to go from 30,000 to 40,000 charge points.

The 50,000th charge point, an ultra-rapid one, was installed in Weston-super-mare by provider MFG EV Power. There are now 3,873 chargers capable of delivering more than 100kW of power. Zapmap is a resource for EV drivers, providing information on the location and status of charge points and offering a simplified payment method through ZapPay. The current power ratings are categorized as slow (3-6kW), fast (7-22kW), rapid (25-99kW), and ultra-rapid (100kW+).

The UK government is in the process of drafting The Public Charge Point Regulations, which will introduce new ratings categorized as <8kW, 8-49kW, 50-149kW, and 150kW+. Additionally, there has been a significant increase in charging hubs, with 196 locations now having six or more chargers, compared to 88 last year. Melanie Shufflebotham, co-founder & COO at Zapmap, emphasized the importance of reaching 50,000 public charging devices and highlighted the benefits of the increased rate of charge point installations and the growth of high-power charging hubs.

In other news, Vital EV has commissioned the UK's first liquid-cooled chargers capable of delivering up to 400kW of power. These chargers are currently available only for prototype and production cars at the testing facility UTAC Millbrook but may become more widely accessible in the future.