Despite the mainstream media claiming otherwise, the UK electric car charging infrastructure is growing at a healthy rate. According to Zap-Map, a company focused on mapping where all the chargers are - there are now more than 75,000 public EV chargers in the UK, with February alone seeing a huge 32% jump in growth year on year.

Zap-Map said that the 75,000th charger in the UK was one of the eight new Ionity chargers at the Village Hotel in Bristol. These opened up pretty recently and are capable of 350kW rapid charging for the latest 800V EVs.

As of the end of February, Zap-Map said that there are now 75,675 charge points open in the UK with the most growth coming from ultra rapid chargers, meaning units capable of 150kW or more. However, the company said that it does expect strong growth throughout 2025, with installation of all types of EV chargers expanding - including low powered ones.

Zap-Map said that:

"The 75,000th charging device reflects the encouraging growth of the country’s charge point infrastructure. 2024 saw a record rate of charge point installation with particularly strong growth in the ultra-rapid segment (150kW+), which has seen an increase of 74%  in installations since the end of February 2024."

However, elsewhere in the industry - the news wasn't seen as the most positive, as Asif Ghafoor, the CEO of Be.EV spoke to AutoExpress and praised the growth in fast chargers, but said that lamppost chargers are not suitable for most people and that there are too many of them.

Ghafoor said:

“What’s been particularly encouraging has been the growth in rapid/ultra-rapid chargers. When we started the roll-out, there was far too much of an obsession with lamppost chargers. They’re handy for people who need to charge overnight but they’re rubbish for everything else and there’s too many of them. Many of these chargers don’t have contactless payments and are installed with little thought for accessibility. Cheap lamppost chargers are not the best solution for everyone, and many will be nothing but street litter in a few years’ time, given how quickly batteries are improving.”

In places such as London and other built up cities, these slower chargers installed in lampposts can offer convenient charging overnight without installing new hardware on the streets. In most cases, existing lampposts can be upgraded to support EV charging.

Source: Zap-Map & AutoExpress