Public charge device utilisation
Charge device utilisation refers to how much a charge device is used and is an important metric for the EV charging industry, from charge point operators to landowners, investors and grid service providers. It can be used to plan rollout of charge devices, development of related services as well as being an input for pricing and promotional activities.
Utilisation varies according to many different factors including the device power, demand, location type and length of time since installation. Charge device utilisation can be measured by the amount of time a vehicle is plugged in or the amount of energy that is delivered via a charging session.
The Zapmap Insights team analyses its comprehensive data on public charging devices to track utilisation rates and trends across the UK's charging infrastructure.
High-level trends, focused on time-based utilisation and updated quarterly, are covered on this page, whilst more in-depth analysis and estimates of energy-based utilisation is available from the Insights product suite. The 87,000+ individual charge devices can be viewed on the Zapmap app, with the vast majority showing live status updates.
How often are public charge devices in the UK used?
According to the latest Zapmap data, the UK public charging network handled over 10.8 million successful sessions in the final quarter of 2025. Key utilisation metrics include:
- Average daily usage: public chargers are typically occupied for approximately 2 hours per day.
- From 50kW up to 149kW (Rapid) and 150kW and above (Ultra-Rapid) demand: these high-power devices account for 72% of all charging sessions.
- From 3kW up to 7.9kW (Standard) and from 8kW up to 49kW (Standard Plus) usage: these devices account for 28% of all charging sessions.
- Peak times: en-route Rapid charging starts are most common between 12pm and 2pm.
- Geographical spread: Greater London currently accounts for nearly 20% of all UK charging sessions.
On average, looking at time-based utilisation, charge devices were used for around 2 hours per day or 8% of a 24 hour period.
Utilisation profile varies by power rating: Standard and Standard Plus charge devices are used less frequently (less than once per day on average) but for longer periods, with an average session time of around 3 hours 55 minutes, whilst Rapid and Ultra-Rapid charge devices are used more frequently (typically around four times per day) but for shorter periods with an average session time of around 38 mins.
When are public charge devices the busiest?
Time of day, day of the week and seasonality factors can impact on how busy a particular charge device is.
Looking at time of day by power rating, for Rapid and Ultra-Rapid charge devices generally used for en-route charging, the most common time to start a charge is between 12pm and 2pm. For Standard and Standard Plus on-street or destination charge devices, the most popular times to plug in are in the morning between 10am and 12pm when a driver arrives at a location, or in the evening between 4pm and 6pm coinciding with drivers arriving back home.
How are public charging sessions distributed across the UK?
The geographical area which delivers the highest number of charging sessions through public charging is Greater London, which accounts for nearly 20% of all charging sessions, followed by South East with 17% and East of England with 10%. This is broadly in proportion to the total number of charge devices in these areas.
Source: Zapmap data Q4 2025
Utilisation analysis conducted using over 83,000 connected devices (aggregated from EVSE level) which represents approximately 85% of all public charge devices across the UK.
More Information
If you are interested in data and insights on charge device utilisation for your business, we can provide much more in-depth analysis and data. Find out more or get in touch with the Zapmap Insights team.
Zapmap Insights co-hosted the first in a series of Transport and Energy Explains webinars delving into the subject of charge device utilisation, with representatives from Fastned and GRIDSERVE. Additionally Zapmap Insights and The Green Finance Institute released two papers on Demystifying Utilisation in 2024 and 2023 which define the different ways utilisation is expressed and contain historic trended data.
Other data from Zapmap which we publish on a regular basis includes overall EV charging stats, tracking EV registrations and growth, Zapmap Price Index, home and community charging and the best networks for EV charging.
Please note that third parties can use this data provided the source is clearly attributed to Zapmap, any graphs include the Zapmap logo, and a link is added back to https://www.zapmap.com in the body of the article. The data must be strictly copied and updated manually, no automated data collection can be applied in any form. The data can only published in its original state and without any modifications.
