The number of ultra-rapid charge points has gone up almost 40% since the end of 2021, according to new figures from EV charging app Zap-Map.
There were 1,290 ultra-rapid charge points in the UK at the beginning of the year, but that has now increased to 1,803.
This shows that the ultra-rapid charging roll-out is more than keeping pace with the increase in EV drivers, which has grown 29% in the first half of 2022.
The growth in ultra-rapid charge points is largely due to networks such as MFG EV Power, InstaVolt and Gridserve Electric Highway, which are rolling out high-speed charging ‘hubs’ of at least six devices across the country.
Also, the total number of charging devices across the UK has grown by almost 15% since the end of December (from 28,458 to 32,663).
Of the 4,205 new devices installed this year, 1,662 of them are ‘on-street’ chargers.
Although a combination of networks, including char.gy and Connected Kerb, has been driving the growth of on-street chargers, ubitricity – which predominantly fits slow devices into lampposts – has installed 981 chargers so far this year, the most of any network.
Moreover, of the 4,205 new devices installed in the first six months of 2022, almost half – 49% – were installed by just five networks.
After ubitricity, Pod Point has installed 649 devices of varying speeds. In third place, rapid charging network InstaVolt has installed 166 chargers, while Zap-Pay partner char.gy and destination charging provider VendElectric have installed 145 and 126 respectively.
Melanie Shufflebotham, co-founder & COO at Zap-Map, said, “We know there are a variety of use cases for electric vehicle chargers, more so than with a petrol or diesel vehicle, so it’s really encouraging to see the UK’s charging infrastructure showing growth in a number of different areas.”
