New figures have today been released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) and Zap-Map. Together they show both new car registrations and the growth of electric vehicle charging infrastructure for the month of October.
New registrations of pure-electric cars showed a strong year-on-year increase of 23.4%, with 19,900 cars sold. However, it’s not only electric cars that have shown an increase. New EV charging statistics from Zap-Map show that there are now officially more than 35,000 public charging devices in the UK, with 35,778 total charging devices across the country at the end of October.
What’s more, certain areas of the UK’s charging infrastructure have shown particularly impressive growth, such as ultra-rapid charging devices, which have seen a 76% increase since October last year.
The Zap-Map graph below shows the number of new battery-electric cars registered each month over the the past 13 months.
October 2022 saw a total of 28,832 new plug-in car registrations, comprising 19,933 BEVs and 8,899 PHEVs.
This takes the cumulative total of plug-in cars on UK roads – as of the end of October – to over 1,000,000. That total comprises over 590,000 BEVs and more than 430,000 PHEVs.
The chart above displays the cumulative number of battery-electric cars in the UK since 2016.
So far in 2022, over 195,500 BEVs have been sold in the UK, alongside more than 83,000 PHEVs.
Last month’s sales saw plug-in cars take 21.4% of market share, with BEVs accounting for 14.8% of overall car sales in October.
This means that plug-in cars currently represent 20.8% of market share in 2022, with BEVs at 14.6% and PHEVs at 6.2%.
While no pure-electric car entered the top ten best sellers last month, the latest EV charging statistics from Zap-Map show that 1,226 new charging devices were installed across the country in October. This brings the UK total to 35,778 devices, across 21,378 locations. It also represents a 35% increase in the number of charging devices since October 2021.
Furthermore, last month saw 176 new rapid and ultra-rapid charging devices installed, bringing the total to 6,508. This includes an increase of 76% in the number of ultra-rapid devices – capable of adding from 70 miles in as little as 15 minutes – since October last year.
Looking ahead, SSE Energy Solutions has kicked off plans to establish a major electric vehicle (EV) charging network across the UK, while Fastned has received a £65 million funding boost to further expand its network.
