Ultra-rapid EV chargepoints grew by almost 80% in 2022 as pure-electric cars outsold petrol vehicles for the first time in history in December, Zap-Map confirmed.
The mapping service confirmed that in December 2022, 42,000 pure-electric vehicles had been sold topping the figure for petrol vehicle sales. Alongside this, customers showed an 89% satisfaction rating for pure-electric vehicles as opposed to the 71% satisfaction standard set for petrol and diesel.
The number of EVs on the UK’s roads also increased by 40% since the end of 2021.
More promising is the number of ultra-rapid chargers that have been introduced across the UK in 2022. Creating the necessary charging backbone in the UK will be crucial to healthily sustain the ever-growing number of EVs on the UK’s roads.
The number of ultra-rapid chargers grew from 1,290 at the end of 2021 to 2,295 at the end of 2022 – an increase that bodes well for the forthcoming transition to EVs in the coming years.
Another crucial achievement in 2022 for the EV industry is the opening of 106 new high-speed charging hubs which consist of four or more rapid or ultra-rapid charging devices. This sees the number of these hubs increase from 189 at the end of 2021 to 295 at the end of December 2022 – a 56% increase.
As well as this, at the end of 2021, there were 89 high-speed charging hubs with seven or more devices. This figure increased to 128 by the end of 2022 representing an increase of 44%.
These hubs provide additional services for the EV market and present further space for charging. It crucially provides charging capabilities for those who do not have access to private chargers.
Overall, the number of EV chargers in the UK grew by around 30% from 28,458 to 37,261 by the end of the year achieving a new record for the highest number of UK chargepoints installed within a year.
“2022 was a record year for both EV sales and public charging rollout. With more than 8,800 net new chargers installed, a 30% increase, the UK’s network is keeping good pace with the take up of cleaner, greener cars,” said Melanie Shufflebotham, co-founder and chief operating officer at Zap-Map.
“There are areas we need to see improvements — there’s still a London and South-East bias, especially for slow on-street charging, and reliability remains the top concern for EV drivers. The rollout of rapid and ultra-rapid chargers has been moving at pace and this needs to continue through 2023, because they are crucial for topping up en-route.
“Despite the challenges of rising energy prices and supply chain shortages, it’s been another big year for electrifying transport. Hopefully 2023 will beat the records again.”
As indicated by Shufflebotham, there still continues to be a regional disparity in the creation of EV charging stations and 2022 saw London and the South East retain the top spots in terms of the highest number of charging points.
However, the West Midlands saw the highest rate of growth for EV chargers in 2022 with its overall figure jumping from 1,854 in 2021 to 2,816 in 2022 – an increase of 52%.
Greater London saw the highest overall number of devices installed in 2022, increasing from 9,160 devices at the end of 2021 to 11,559 at the end of December – an increase of 26%.
Despite this, regional charging disparity continues to be an obstacle, and this will continue in debates moving into 2023. One of the crucial aspects in reducing charging disparity is by providing on-street charging solutions to help increase charging confidence amongst those without access to private chargers.
In this regard 2022 saw promising numbers. Zap-Map’s data stated that the number of on-street charging devices increasing by 36% – up from 8,842 devices at the end of 2021 to 12,009 devices by the end of December.
