The UK electric charging infrastructure received a major boost in 2021 with a jump of 37 per cent on the previous year.
While many analysts are suggesting that provision for public charging points is a long way behind the curve if it wants to meet anticipated demand for 2030, the additional 7,600 devices installed brings the total number of public charge points available to 28,375.
As expected London leads the way for publicly available EVs, with 102 public chargers per 100,000 population, compared to just 18 per 100,000 in Northern Ireland. Provision in Scotland reflects well at 52 per 100,000 but those tend to be in the major cities and not in hard to reach highland areas.
Though the data has been released by the Department for Transport, it is actually based on Zap-Map’s database and therefore cannot be verified. However it is likely that there will be more than the 28,000 chargers as many are now capable of charging more than one car.
Ben Foulser, from KPMG who published the data said: “As electric vehicle adoption rises, it’s encouraging to see more public charging points installed. But there’s no doubt that the pace of delivery will have to increase in order to both cope with the demand of the coming years, and to convince others to transition to EVs.
“It’s also vital that any use of public funding to de-risk investment by the private sector is targeted and successful. This includes development of commercially attractive portfolios that incorporate rural and smaller sites, enabling a just transition to zero-emission mobility across the UK.”