UK hits 85,000 public charge point milestone

The UK now has more than 85,000 public charge points for electric vehicles, according to newly published figures from Zapmap.

It says there were 85,163 electric vehicle charging points across the UK as of the end of August. These are spread across 42,970 charging locations.

Last month, 1,234 net new charging devices were added to the Zapmap database. This includes 212 new rapid / ultra-rapid devices.

The figures also show that August was a particularly strong month for on-street chargers, with 899 net new devices. On-street chargers enable people to charge near home, at a slower rate and typically at a lower price and are seen as crucial for helping drivers without off-street parking shift to EVs.

Jade Edwards, head of insights at Zapmap, said: “After a long stretch of attention on hubs and ultra-rapid charging, we’re seeing near-home charging coming into focus. This month, we saw both Ubitricity and Char.gy deliver large-scale on-street projects at speed as well as six new LEVI tenders going live. These projects deliver charging infrastructure at scale, help to address regional imbalances and form an important part of the overall charging landscape.

Zapmap also spotlighted that charge point utilisation peaked over the summer holidays, with 126,854 sessions on Friday 15 August – around 27% higher than the daily average over the past three months.