The DfT has released official electric vehicle public charging infrastructure statistics for 2025, with latest stats shifting to focus on counting EV chargers (EVSE) as the topline metric for public EV charging provision in the UK.
Zapmap and the Department for Transport have been tracking the amount of charging provision since 2014, counting and reporting on the number of devices available for public use. With the growing maturity of the industry and better availability of data from charge point operators, EV chargers are now considered to the best and most reliable way to report on the size of the public network, more closely reflecting the number of EVs that can be charged simultaneously.
As the official supplier of charging infrastructure data to the DfT, Zapmap has made the following changes to our own reporting of EV charging stats:
• While we will continue to track device count, we are now using EV chargers (EVSE) as our lead metric in infrastructure stats;
• We are simplifying terminology to focus on devices and EV chargers, and moving away from using the term ‘charge point’ which is interpreted to mean different things across the industry and can therefore be confusing in the context of measuring growth of the infrastructure.
At the same time, we have updated power bands descriptors: Slow and Fast have become Standard and Standard Plus. This provides more intuitive language for EV drivers and a better reflection of the charging experience. The four power bands in use are:
Standard (from 3kW up to 7.9kW) Standard Plus (from 8kW up to 49kW) Rapid (from 50kW up to 149kW) Ultra-rapid (150kW and above)
Where possible, the focus when referring to the power rating of EV chargers will be on the numeric kW value, as this is clearest for new and existing EV drivers in terms of what they can expect from the performance and features of EV chargers at that level. Further detail and explanation on these changes can be found on our EV charger explainer page.
Jade Edwards, Head of Insights, Zapmap, comments:
"As the EV charging infrastructure develops in the UK, and we move towards more widespread adoption of EVs, changes to the way we report on growth, alongside a move towards more standardised terminology, help ensure that new and prospective EV drivers have a clear understanding of the charging options available to them."
EV chargers are used as the standard metric for measuring the size of the public network throughout Europe and in many countries across the rest of the world, meaning that these changes in reporting conventions will also enable easier and more accurate international comparisons.
The DfT has also released a helpful FAQ about the changes, which can be found here.
