Due to the rapidly expanding electric vehicle market in the UK, Chargemaster is forecasting that more than one million public EV charging sessions will be made each year on its POLAR network by 2020.
Charging on the public network – extensive as it is – pales in comparison to home and workplace charging sessions on Chargemaster units. The Luton-based company predicts that around 11 million charging sessions annually will be completed on Chargemaster home and workplace units by the same date.
Last year there were a little over 540,000 public charging sessions on the POLAR network, with that figure expected to increase to around 800,000 for 2018.
Chargemaster’s plans for its POLAR network include an expansion to around 25,000 public charging points across the UK by the end of 2020, with several thousand rapid chargers part of that number. Many of these will be able to charge at 150kW – three times as powerful as existing rapids – to meet the demands of EV drivers wanting faster charge times for cars with larger battery packs.
David Martell, Chief Executive of Chargemaster, said: “We will continue to provide the largest proportion of both home and public charging infrastructure in the UK in the coming years, and expect to see a huge increase in the use of both the POLAR network, and the deployment of our UK-made Homecharge units.
“Over 42,000 EV drivers in the UK already use the POLAR network, and we expect that figure to rise dramatically by 2020, when we predict there will be over 500,000 EVs on UK roads.”
