Zapmap has announced that the number of public charging devices has surpassed the 70,000 mark, a milestone which comes just five months after it recorded 60,000 public chargers in April 2024.
As of September 2024, there are now 70,434 public charging devices available to EV drivers in the UK, representing a 41% year-on-year increase compared to September 2023, when 49,882 devices were recorded.
• In 2022, an average of 730 new devices were installed per month.
• In 2023, this figure nearly doubled to 1,387 devices per month.
• In 2024 so far, the average monthly installation rate has climbed to 1,872 devices per month.
According to data from Zapmap, the 70,000th public charging device was installed last month. Operated by charging network evyve, it was a rapid charging device located in the car park of the New Pippin, a Greene King pub in Coventry.
Melanie Shufflebotham, co-founder and COO of Zapmap, comments: “Reaching 70,000 public chargers is a testament to the collective efforts of the EV industry to accelerate the electrification of transport in the UK. This number covers many different charging use cases from low-powered, on-street chargers to destination chargers at hotels and 150kW+ charging hubs. While requiring different levels of investment, each reflects chargepoint operators’ significant commitment to providing EV drivers with the public charging infrastructure they need to confidently travel and charge their vehicles anywhere.”
Zapmap says a notable trend is the growth in the number of ultra-rapid chargers, capable of delivering 100 miles of range in just 15 minutes, which has shown 114% year-on-year growth, from 2,869 in September 2023 to 6,136 in September 2024.
Similarly, the number of charging hubs – locations with six or more rapid or ultra-rapid charging devices – has more than doubled, rising from 197 hubs in September 2023 to 451 hubs in 2024. Zapmap says this 129% increase demonstrates chargepoint operators responding to demand from EV drivers to create dedicated, high-power charging zones that offer charging convenience and confidence to drivers on long journeys.
New charging hubs are being deployed across motorways and key travel routes, with Osprey, InstaVolt and MFG charging networks installing the largest number of new hubs in 2024.
Meanwhile, on-street charging infrastructure currently makes up over a third of all the chargepoints in the UK, with Greater London still accounting for the majority (72%) of these on-street charge points.
A further third of the UK’s overall provision is located in car parks across the UK (includes a variety of public car parks, retail car parks, supermarkets and park and ride). With the number of these devices rising by nearly 50% over the last year (now 21,178 devices in place). Operators are rolling out a mix of lower powered (<50kW) devices and higher powered (50kW+) devices at these sites, as different provider strategies are developing. For example, at supermarkets 43% of devices installed there are 50kW+ today, compared to only 34% a year ago.
