UK needs far faster EV charger rollout to hit 2030 demand

The UK needs to more than double the number of electric vehicle charge points being installed each year to hit the bare minimum the government has estimated will be needed by 2030.

Nearly 88,000 charge points are in the UK with about 15,000 installations last year, according to analysis of data by charging app Zapmap and the Department for Transport.

However, the government has estimated between 250,000 and 550,000 will need to be in place by 2030 to support the transition from petrol cars to EVs.

To hit the lowest end of this range — even by the end of 2030 — would therefore require more than 32,000 charge points being installed each year, according to the analysis. Meeting the higher end would require more than 92,000 a year.

Carmakers argue the growth of public charging infrastructure needs to keep pace with the expansion of EV sales to achieve the government’s target of 80 per cent of new car sales being electric by the end of the decade.

But industry executives have warned that a watering down of the government’s EV sales targets last year has created uncertainty in demand and policy, prompting some charge-point operators to hold back from investing.

Vicky Read, chief executive of trade group ChargeUK, said: “The mood music around the zero-emission vehicle mandate and EV transition has been incredibly mixed this past 18 months, meaning you are going to start to see some hesitation on infrastructure investment.”

While Read said the industry remained on track with the rollout of charge points, she added: “We are starting to see some warning signs around EV policy which, combined with charge-point operators’ high energy costs, present a challenge.

“If we don’t have policy certainty and measures to address those costs, it will impact whether the sector can put the right charge points in the right places ahead of when drivers need them.”

Before the estimated 15,000 charge points installed in 2025, new installations of charge points were roughly 8,700 in 2022, 17,000 in 2023 and 20,000 in 2024.

The sharp fall last year has been attributed by those in the industry to Covid-related delays which led to construction being concentrated in 2024.

But there has been an even sharper slowdown in rapid charge points, with new installations nearly halving in 2025 from the previous year, according to Zapmap.

According to separate analysis by consultancy Cenex and Vauxhall Motors, the supply of public charging across Britain was ahead of demand by 1.5 years but the rate of new installations needs to increase to maintain this buffer. Rural areas, especially those in Wales and Scotland, also remain behind in the installation of near-home charge points.

While some car executives have called for more enforceable targets to be set for the charging industry, others have cautioned they would be insufficient without addressing the high costs of public charging.

To charge 80 per cent of the battery of an Audi Q4 e-tron, it would cost about £22 on public charging compared with £9.36 on home charging, according to calculations by Zapmap.

The government has said it would review the cost of public EV charging this year. The sector has called for the removal of the VAT on public charging — currently set at 20 per cent compared with 5 per cent at home.

In addition to the high public charging costs, Tanya Sinclair, chief executive of trade body Electric Vehicles UK, said: “The numerical target neglects the geographical spread requirement and there is a market failure in rural roads such as Scotland or Wales where it does not pay commercially to set up charge points.”

The DfT has committed £381mn in funding to help local authorities set up charge points in underserved areas, which it estimates will lead to installations of another 100,000 charge points over the next few years.

Separately, the government has also promised to spend a further £600mn this year to accelerate the rollout.

The DfT said: “We’re building a charging network that works for all. We know concerns about charge-point access remain a barrier to people going electric.”