The total number of public electric car chargers across the UK has grown by almost 15% since the end of December.
According to Zap-Map, the UK’s leading EV charging app, there’s been an increase from 28,458 to 32,663 of devices.
The biggest growth sector was ultra-rapid charging which grew 40% in the first half of 2022, which shows that the ultra-rapid charging roll-out is more than keeping pace with the increase in EV drivers, which has grown 29% over the same period.
The growth in ultra-rapid charge points is largely due to networks such as MFG EV Power, InstaVolt and GRIDSERVE Electric Highway, which are rolling out high-speed charging ‘hubs’ of at least six devices across the country.
In terms of where chargers are located, of the 4,205 new devices installed this year, 1,662 of them are ‘on-street’ chargers.
Found on residential streets, on-street devices tend to be either slow or fast chargers and, generally speaking, provide an alternative to charging at home.
The number of these chargers has increased by just under 19% in 2022 so far, growing from 8,842 at the end of 2021 to 10,504 at the end of June.
Although a combination of networks, including char.gy and Connected Kerb, has been driving the growth of on-street chargers, ubitricity – which predominantly fits slow devices into lampposts – has installed 981 chargers so far this year, the most of any network.
“The 40% increase in the number of ultra-rapid chargers is clearly the headline figure so far in 2022. These types of chargers make longer journeys far easier, so the big increase should really mean we see an end to ‘range anxiety’,” said Melanie Shufflebotham, Co-founder & COO at Zap-Map.
“But let’s not forget that slower chargers also have a critical role to play. They might not provide the excitement of adding hundreds of miles in minutes – but with more than half a million pure-electric cars now on UK roads, their part to play in the adoption of electric cars is just as important as their ultra-rapid counterparts.
“It’s crucial that the rollout of high-speed charging hubs continues at pace, alongside the increasing provision of on-street chargers for those without driveways, ideally with local councils engaged along the way.”
Source: automotiveblog.co.uk
