For the first time since the invention of the motor car, the United Kingdom has more public electric-vehicle charging connectors than petrol pump nozzles. The threshold was crossed on 14 February, according to Zapmap's quarterly census.
The headline figure — 84,200 chargers against 81,900 petrol pumps — is a milestone worth marking. But it obscures a more uncomfortable picture beneath.
Where the chargers aren't
Forty-one percent of new installations during the past twelve months landed inside the M25. Cornwall received fewer than two hundred. Mid-Wales received eighty-three. For drivers outside the Home Counties, the rollout still feels theoretical.
Reliability remains the killer issue
The Department for Transport's own audit, published quietly in January, found that 11.4% of rapid chargers were non-functional on any given day. For long-distance drivers, that is the difference between confidence and anxiety.
