There are now 120,000 EV ‘chargers’ in the UK – but a change in the way these things are counted makes any comparison with previous years difficult.
Back in March the Department for Transport and its official third-party data collator, Zapmap, announced they were changing how they would classify charging speeds (EG ‘fast’ charging is officially now ‘standard plus’).
At the same time, the pair decided that instead of counting chargepoint ‘devices’ – IE standalone physical units that could host one or a pair of charging leads – they would use ‘chargers’ as their key metric, with ‘chargers’ referring to individual leads – EG one ‘device’ will be counted as two ‘chargers’ if it features two leads/sockets to charge two vehicles simultaneously.
When Zapmap last conducted its survey, in February 2025, it found there were 75,000 ‘devices’. Now, the company has recounted, and determined there are 120,388 ‘chargers’, and concedes the metric change means ”milestone events are not comparable on a like-for-like basis” – although the company did share that in April 2025 there were 108,819 ‘chargers’ (IE leads).
Zapmap boss Melanie Shufflebotham says the 120,388 number is a “landmark” and “a great result for EV drivers”.
So far it appears Zapmap and the DfT are the only bodies to follow these conventions, with the rest of the industry sticking with the old terms and not adopting the new ones.
