The roll out of public electric vehicle (EV) charge points across the UK continues to accelerate, latest figures have suggested.
According to EV mapping and data service Zapmap, as of the end of June a total of 82,369 public charge point devices had been installed across the UK, at 40,479 locations.
Moreover, in the first six months of this year, some 8,670 new charge points were installed, an increase of more than a quarter (27%) on the same half-year period last year.
There are now estimated to be more than 1.5 million electric vehicles on our roads, up from just shy of 400,000 just four years ago, again according to Zapmap, illustrating a significant acceleration in EV ownership.
When it came to on-street charge points, 3,709 new points were installed in the first six months of the year, bringing the total to 29,227.
While the majority of these (20,490) are located in Greater London, other regions of the UK are now seeing far higher growth in the rate of on-street devices being installed, said Zapmap.
While London saw an increase of under 11% in the first six months of the year, the rest of the UK saw the number of on-street chargers increase from 7,106 at the end of December to 8,737 at the end of June, an increase of more than 25%, it said.
The figures are good news for ministers, with the Department for Transport aiming for more than 100,000 local charge points to be installed in the coming years.
Future of Roads minister Lillian Greenwood said in June that the more than 100,000 new charge points are being delivered thanks to the existing government funding from the £381m Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund, providing support to industry and local authorities across England.
Greenwood said: “This government is powering up the EV revolution by rolling out a charge point every 29 minutes and our support to roll out over 100,000 local charge points in England shows we’re committed to making even more progress.”
However, at the same time, MPs from the influential Public Accounts Committee have criticised the government for what it called the still ‘patchy availability for electric vehicle (EV) charging that now ‘plagues large swathes of UK motorways’ (see separate story).
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