Download full report here:
Overall, the UK has an excess of public charging capacity but consumer experience shows improvements are needed
The UK’s public charging network has seen remarkable growth, nearly doubling the number of charge points over the past two years to reach 80,998 devices across 39,773 locations, with 115,241 connectors as of May 2025. This expansion puts the sector broadly on track to deliver the fourfold increase needed by 2030 to support mass battery electric vehicle (BEV) adoption.
T&E’s analysis of charge point roll out at the local level shows that roll out remains strong in London, with other urban areas, such as Brighton, Coventry, and Cambridge, also making strong progress by matching high local demand with targeted investment. Encouragingly, several rural regions—including parts of Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall—are also delivering well, with modest charger numbers appropriately scaled to local needs.
However, many other areas are falling behind, for example, while Brighton and Hove have moved ahead with 185 charge points per 100,000 people and 20 charge points per 100 locally registered BEVs, Walsall is at the other end of the spectrum with just 25 and 3, respectively. Local authorities not keeping up with local demand are spread across the UK, from urban areas in the South East, such as Harrow, to rural areas in the north, such as Cumberland.
T&E polling data shows that a key perceived barrier for drivers considering a BEV is the lack of a fully national network of ultra-rapid chargers across the UK to ensure longer journeys can be made easily, which is often expressed as concern regarding public charging availability, charging times and range anxiety. T&E’s analysis shows that although rapid roll out (rapid and ultra-rapid numbers have increased by 33% in the last year to over 15,000 charge points) over recent years means that major roads in the South East through to the North West are well served, with 90% of motorways with 10km of ultra-rapid charging. Coverage in rural areas, in the South West, Norfolk, North East England, Wales, and Scotland, is patchy, with only 65% coverage for A roads.
Given current utilisation rates of just 16% by time and 4% by energy, it remains commercially challenging for charge point operators to invest to fill gaps in the A-road network. The cancellation of the Rapid Charging Fund (RCF) aimed at tackling this part of the charger market has left a critical gap and other sources of support for charger roll out in these areas need to be considered to ensure full coverage across the UK.
Success relies on a greater focus on the consumer experience of charging
Despite strong infrastructure growth, public satisfaction with charging remains modest at just 64%, with surveys showing cost and charging experience continuing to rank among the top barriers to BEV uptake. T&E’s AI analysis of user reviews of charging experience in this study reveals that failed charging attempts are the most frequently cited issue.
The Public Charge Point Regulation 2023 requires 99% reliability of rapid/ultra-rapid chargers and their payment systems. T&E’s analysis shows that the number of comments, per BEV on the road, relating to broken and failed charging attempts have slowly decreased since the regulation's introduction, with failed charging comments per BEV now at 36% of the level seen in 2020. This is positive and shows that the regulation is working.
However, the total number of comments relating to failed charging attempts has remained roughly constant since 2020, suggesting that this remains an issue at a small number of sites.
The analysis shows that the time it takes to repair broken chargers remains an issue, with only 20% of a sample of 500 broken charge points repaired within 24h and 40% within one week. Repair times differ significantly across the UK with the South of England achieving 50% of chargers being fixed within 1 month. This drops to 40% for the North of England and 30% for the Midlands. Given that consumer rankings of CPO’s are strongly tied to reliability, further improving reliability and faster repair of chargers is needed to boost consumer satisfaction and confidence in the UK’s charging network.
Recommendations to end the charging quality lottery and ensure good access to reliable charging across the UK:
Use the remainder of the £400 million dedicated to charging in the 2025 Spending Review to target those areas currently left behind in public charging provision. This should include local residential charging for communities without driveways, not already supported by LEVI or the £25 million cross pavement scheme, and in-transit charging on sections of the Major Road Network, particularly for those locations where the current business case for a charger is challenging
Include renewable electricity used to charge electric cars in the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) to support the roll out of ultra-rapid charging in less profitable and underserved areas, at no cost to the treasury, to fill the gap left by the cancelled rapid charging fund
Reverse the fuel duty freeze and commit to raising fuel duty by an additional 5-10p next year in order to ensure that fuelling a car using green electricity is cheaper than using fossil fuel
- Amend the Public Charge Point Regulation to require CPOs to:
Repair all broken charge points within 1 week and 20% within 24 hours
Publicly report via a simple, accessible metric the number of broken charge points and payment systems in each local authority to allow the government to see problem areas as the current national data is insufficiently granular and accessible to identify issues at the local level effectively
Track and publicly report on a range of consumer-related metrics, including consumer satisfaction, the number of consumers who attempt but fail to pay, and the number of consumers who attempt but fail to charge
Bring down public charging costs by lowering VAT from 20% to 5% on public chargers in line with private charging, with a requirement for charge point operators to pass these savings through to consumers in full
Remove policy costs from electricity prices to reduce charging costs for everyone in line with the Climate Change Committee's recommendations
