More than 50,000 public charge points for electric vehicles are now available for drivers and riders – that’s an amazing 44% more than this time last year.
The figures were issued by the Department for Transport using data supplied by Zapmap. The growth is important because in 2025, there’s a mandate which requires 80% of new cars and 70% of new vans sold in Great Britain to be zero emission by 2030.
The DfT says it is aiming to have 300,000 public charge points by 2030, all available to electric motorcycles as well as cars.
Technology and Decarbonisation Minister Anthony Browne said, “Passing 50,000 public charge points is a key milestone in our journey to zero emission driving and shows the incredible progress we’ve made to provide the infrastructure for drivers to go electric.’
“With Government and private sector investment, we are backing drivers by expanding our charging network – creating jobs and putting us well on the way to our target of 300,000 public charge points by 2030.”
The government says it continues to support the rollout of charging infrastructure in local areas. Applications for the first round of the £381 million Local EV Infrastructure Fund are currently being assessed. This funding will deliver tens of thousands more charge points and transform the availability of charging for drivers without off-street parking.
In addition, the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS) is open to all UK local authorities. Grants are also available to help businesses make the transition through the Government’s Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS), as well as people in flats and rented accommodation through the Electric Vehicle Chargepoint Grant.
Additionally, new laws provide EV drivers (and riders) with easier and more reliable public charging, mandating that that prices across charge points are transparent, easy to compare and that a large proportion of new public charge points have contactless payment options.