IT’S A NUMBERSGAME

EV news in the first couple of months of 2023 has been dominated by criticism of the numbers of public charge points in the UK, especially the number installed in 2022 versus the growth in vehicle sales.

Whilst last year’s charge point deployment was affected by the supply chain delays suffered globally, I want to assure drivers that mass deployment of the public EV charging infrastructure continues to move forward, and now at greater pace than ever.

This year the country will see a mass deployment of literally thousands of new public chargepoints located at reliable hubs across the country. At Osprey alone, we installed in two weeks in January more chargers than we installed in the first two months of 2022. Our network will more than double in size in the next 12 months.

The UK is now in a position where drivers have the choice of several trusted, customer-focused and heavily-funded charging networks who are each deploying these large numbers of rapid charge points on motorways, A roads, retail parks and on residential streets, from the tip of Cornwall up to the Scottish Highlands.

Challenges do remain. Charge point operators are working collaboratively with the government to remove barriers and secure permitted development rights that would help reduce delays to currently complex and sometimes inconsistent legal processes involved in installing public charging.

This is particularly important for the installation of large hubs, where a substation and therefore a separate lease for this electrical infrastructure is required with the DNO. Osprey is (at the time of writing) developing 38 new high-power charging hubs on major transport routes, with multiple super-fast chargers in each location.

Finally, a note on measurement. The UK’s public charging needs will be met by a whole ecosystem of varying speeds, locations and types of service. Simplistic measurements of charging provision such as “public chargers per vehicle” or “public chargers per 100 people” miss crucial differences between regions of the UK. For example, differences in off-street parking, typical mileage driven, and seasonal and through-traffic numbers. Moving away from the assumption that there is a known number of charge points that is “enough” will help to identify the real needs and best solutions faster.