The UK’s public charge point network has grown 35% in the last year and now totals just under 35,000 devices across the UK.

Ubitricity has the largest UK public charging network

New data from charge point mapping service Zap-Map reveals a total of 1,126 new EV charging devices went live on its database last month – the same month in which the UK’s millionth plug-in electric car was registered.

As of the end of September 2022, there were 34,860 electric vehicle charging points across the UK, spread across 20,888 locations and with 57,613 connectors. These figures don’t include the estimated 400,000+ charge points installed at home or at workplace locations, some of which are available to the public via community or visitor charging.

In terms of rapid/ultra-rapid chargers, 256 new devices were added to the Zap-Map database last month, bringing the total to 6,411 devices, with 13,745 connectors and located across 3,736 rapid and ultra-rapid charging locations in the UK.

Since September 2021, there has been a 76% increase in the number of ultra-rapid devices across the country.

Zap-Map also tracks the market share of the charging networks in the UK by number of devices. Ubitricity, acquired by Shell in February 2021 and the operator of a network of lamppost chargers, is the market leader with 5,635 devices and a 16.2% share. It’s followed by Pod Point with its network of destination chargers (4,661 / 13.4%), which are mainly based in retail car parks, particularly supermarkets. In third place is BP Pulse, which runs an extensive network of rapid and destination chargers across the UK (2,787 devices / 8%).

When it comes to the most rapid or ultra-rapid electric vehicle charging points, the Tesla network leads the way, with 967 charge points and a 15.1% share at the end of September 2022, followed by InstaVolt (880/13.7%) and BP Pulse (820/12.8%).

Data on charge point location continues to reveal the postcode lottery on charging provision. Greater London has the most charge points at 11,044, followed by the South-East with 4,533 and Scotland with 3,304.

In terms of percentage split, Greater London has 31.7% of the UK’s charging points, with the South East at 13%, Scotland at 9.5% and the West Midlands at 7.2%. At the other end of the scale, both the Isle of Man and Channel Islands have just 0.3%, Northern Ireland 1% and the North East 3%.

The most common rapid/ultra-rapid connector is now CCS, which supports power ratings from 25kW up to 350kW, and is included on the majority of new EVs released onto the market, including the newer Tesla models. There are 5,568 CCS connectors in the UK, compared to 5,045 CHAdeMO, 1,714 Type 2 AC and 1,411 Tesla Type 2 and CCS.

While the UK’s public charging network continues to grow, last month also saw the UK record a bumper month for plug-in registrations. SMMT data for September reveals the second highest monthly volume of battery electric vehicle (BEV) registrations in history, up 16.5% to 38,116 units. The strong growth helped counter a 11.5% YoY drop-off in plug-in hybrid registrations and means that overall plug-in vehicles accounted for more than one in five new cars (22.4%) joining UK roads in the month.

Novuna Vehicle Solutions has warned that the ratio of electric cars to public charge points has risen from 5:1 in 2019, to 15:1 today and could hit 54:1 by the end of this decade.