New figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) and Zap-Map have been released, detailing both new car registrations and the growth of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in July.
Despite overall sales of new cars dropping by nearly 9% compared to July 2021, new registrations of pure-electric cars showed an increase of almost 10%. Indeed, pure-electric cars – also known as battery-electric cars, or BEVs – were one of only two vehicle types in July to increase sales year on year.
However, it wasn’t only electric cars that showed an increase last month. New EV charging statistics from Zap-Map show that there were almost 33,300 total charging devices across the UK at the end of July. Certain areas have shown impressive growth, such as ultra-rapid charging devices, which have seen a 70% increase since July last year.
What’s more, the UK has now officially passed 20,000 total charging locations, with 20,336 locations recorded on Zap-Map at the end of July.
The Zap-Map graph below shows the number of new battery-electric cars registered each month over the the past 13 months.
July 2022 saw a total of 18,776 new plug-in car registrations, comprising 12,243 BEVs and 6,533 PHEVs.
This takes the cumulative total of plug-in cars on UK roads – as of the end of July – to over 930,000. That total comprises over 520,000 BEVs and more than 405,000 PHEVs.
The chart above displays the cumulative number of battery-electric cars in the UK since 2016.
So far in 2022, over 127,000 BEVs have been sold in the UK, alongside more than 57,000 PHEVs.
Last month’s sales saw plug-in cars take 16.7% of market share, with BEVs accounting for 10.9% of overall car sales in July.
This means that plug-in cars currently represent 20.2% of market share in 2022, with BEVs at 13.9% and PHEVs at 6.3%.
While no pure-electric car entered the top ten last month, the latest EV charging statistics from Zap-Map show that 1,332 new charging devices were installed in July. This brings the UK total to 33,281 devices, across 20,336 locations. It also represents a 35% increase in the number of charging devices since June 2021.
Furthermore, last month saw 66 new rapid and ultra-rapid charging devices installed, bringing the total to 6,084. This includes an increase of 70% in the number of ultra-rapid devices – capable of adding from 70 miles in as little as 15 minutes – since July last year.
In addition, the UK has now officially passed 20,000 total charging locations, with 20,336 locations recorded on Zap-Map at the end of July.
Looking ahead, on-street charging network Connected Kerb is to install 1,000 chargers in Gloucestershire, while Network Rail is aiming to equip 10% of its car parking spaces with new EV charging points by March 2024.
