The Department for Transport has worked with Zapmap on changing the way that charging infrastructure is reported – revealing there are now 116,000 UK electric vehicle (EV) chargers.
Co-founder and COO of Zapmap, Melanie Shufflebotham, posted on LinkedIn about the changes and how the numbers had shifted from the 88,000 charging devices previously recorded to the new higher number.
The figure, which covers all on-route, destination and on-street chargers, has been delivered due to “the ways to track charging has improved dramatically, especially with the widespread use of Open Charge Point Interface (OCPI)”, Shufflebotham wrote.
She said that moving to EV chargers (EVSE) was “not perfect” but provided a “better way to track the number of EVs that can be charged simultaneously”.
It also brought the UK in line with international reporting on chargers.
In addition, she added that power band descriptors had been updated so that slow and fast were now ‘standard’ and ‘standard plus’.
She added that there was “widespread agreement” that using “fast” to describe 8-49kW was “very confusing” when it was also used for “fast charging” en-route.
She said:
“We have created some materials and documents which can be found below, and we hope will be helpful.
“The aim is to provide a standardised way to talk about charging and charging infrastructure, which in turn will provide more clarity to the next wave of drivers thinking about making the move to electric.”
The materials are available to view here and here, and the Department for Transport FAQ page is here.
