Are 100,000 public charge points operational in the UK?

Do we have 100,000 operational public charge points in the UK? According to a new study by Octopus Electroverse, the answer is yes! They say over 100,000 public EV charge points are operational across 34,000 locations.

Their report shares that one new public charger has been installed every 13 minutes in the past six months, with rapid and ultra-rapid chargers making up 24% of all public charge points. 

The government’s target is for 300,000 public chargers to be installed in the UK by 2030, when the sale of ICE vehicles is phased out.

According to the report, this milestone means the UK enters the ‘100k+ club’, joining Belgium, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, as the EV Charging networks expand.

Our Head of EV Charging, Graeme Patton, commented:

“This insight from Octopus Electroverse has got everyone talking! At the end of March 2025, Zapmap reported there were 76,840 electric vehicle charging points across the UK, in 38,737 charging locations. It will be interesting to see what the Zapmap, and government data shows in May, when the end of April numbers are published.”

What we say is that the network is definitely offering a greater choice of charge points and charging locations, and the expansion continues with momentum. Our focus is on making sure charge points are accessible, reliable, and deliver an improved driver experience”.   

Update

Since the first publication of our blog, Zapmap's Melanie Shufflebotham, has commented on the figures. She says:

"Has the UK charging network added 25k charge points in the last month!? 

This was the question I was asked a couple of times yesterday afer the "100k UK charge points" was reported in the press. The answer is that while the charging network continues to grow at a good rate, it has unsurprisingly not grown by 30% in a month!

The confusion, as ever, lies in definitions of charge points.  At Zapmap we track four different numbers and currently publish three of them:

⚡ Connectors - the plug which connects to the vehicle (112k, March 2025) 

⚡ EVSE - an independently operated and managed part of a charge device that is able to deliver energy to one EV at a time, which can have one or more connectors (105k, March 2025)

⚡ Devices - the physical charging unit at the charge location, which can have one or more EVSEs (76.8k, March 2025)

⚡ Locations - the place at which there are one or more charge devices located (38.7k March 2025)

In the UK, the charge device number has been used as the headline figure to track the growth of the charging infrastructure over the past 10 years and it is this figure that is used for official reporting by the Department for Transport (DfT), United Kingdom.   The 100k charge point figure that has been quoted in the press is based on EVSE number, rather than the charge device number. 

At Zapmap we willl continue to monitor market growth across multiple metrics, and, for further clarity, will add EVSE number to the monthly reporting in our top level “blue and orange” box".

More information

To read the Octopus Electroverse report head here.

Zapmap’s latest figures are here.

More updates on the way in May!