“Tesla is the only manufacturer that can produce EVs at scale” says Hertz Interim Chief Executive Mark Fields. This follows Hertz’s purchase of 100,000 Tesla EVs in a bid to become the world’s leading electric car hire company.[1]
Tesla owners can enjoy 5 Supercharger stations and 58 charge points around the country, which means there is approximately 1 charger per 5932 Tesla cars in the UK.
As of July 2022, there are around 930,000 plug-in vehicles in the UK (520,000 battery electric vehicles) according to Next Green Car. In London, there are around 116 chargers per 100,000 people and just 27 chargers per 100,000 in Birmingham.
So, why are there so many Tesla charging points in the UK and why aren’t there enough standard EV chargers?
A Tesla can be charged up to 80% in 40 minutes at a Supercharger and they have been upgrading their system from 250Kw to 300Kw for even more efficient charge times. They are, however, introducing a pilot scheme in which non-Tesla EVs can use the Supercharger network at 60p per KwH.
This is part of Tesla’s acknowledgement that greater EV charging infrastructure is needed for “critical… large-scale EV adoption”. In the pilot scheme, non-Tesla drivers can charge using the Tesla app allowing Tesla to monitor charge sites “for congestion”. However, Tesla are yet to confirm the maximum charging speed for non-Tesla users.
So, why are there so many Tesla charge points in the UK?
Tesla are edging ever closer to the point of producing one million Tesla vehicles per year, having made 930,422 in 2021 and 310,048 in the first quarter of 2022 alone.[1] Their Supercharger network is growing at an even faster rate in order to fulfil their goal to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy".
At the end of 2020, Tesla had 23,277 Superchargers around the world. By the end of 2021, there were 31,498 Superchargers. This is an impressive year-on-year growth of 35%. In comparison, July 2021 saw 24,374 public EV chargers which increased to 28,375 in January 2022. This has since increased to 42,000 charge points, which is an increase of 48%.
Unfortunately, this means the UK average is still just 42 EV chargers per 100,000!
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