Leading the charge

Milestone as Chargemaster records one millionth electric vehicle charge in the UK.

Electric vehicles in the UK have been charged a total of 1,000,000 times using Chargemaster’s nationwide network of charging points.

According to Chargemaster, Britain’s leading provider of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, a total of around 9.5 million kWh of electricity has been provided to EV motorists since September 2012.

The figure is enough for electric vehicles to drive a total of more than 49 million miles – more than 200 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon*.

Chargemaster records all charging events through its Chargevision back office system and while it took nearly two years to rack up 500,000 charges – from the first one in September 2012 to half a million in July 2014 – it took just six months to reach its one millionth charge.

The rapid growth in electric vehicles charging on Chargemaster’s nationwide network is supported by figures from the SMMT, which show that the number of plug-in cars registered in the UK quadrupled from 2013 to 2014.

David Martell, CEO of Chargemaster, said: “Figures from our charging network echo the recent good news from the UK motor industry regarding the growth in electric vehicle sales.

“It is clear that the increasing diversity of plug-in cars available is appealing to consumers and that drivers are recognising the benefits that electric vehicles bring in both reducing their cost of motoring and their emissions.”

Chargemaster installed its 10,000th public and commercial charging point in 2014. It was also ranked as one of the fastest growing technology companies in the Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 league table.

*Calculation based on an electric car with a 24kWh battery pack and a stated range of up to 124 miles, with the Moon being an average of 238,855 miles away from Earth.