More than 100,000 high-power chargers will be installed by 2030 across Europe, with over a quarter in the UK, according to Delta-EE.

The new research suggests over 100,000 high power chargers will be installed by 2030 across Europe, with over a quarter in the UK

A new report from the specialist new energy research & consulting company says high-power chargers – defined as 100kW+ – have emerged as a trend in the past two years and their growth is set to dramatically accelerate, up from a base of 4,400 HPCs installed in 2020.

Its European EV Chargepoint Forecast predicts that the UK will become Europe’s second largest HPC market with 28,000 HPCs installed by 2030.

The report goes on to predict there will be 14 million electric vehicles on UK roads by 2030 and 8.3 million charge points installed by then – of which 6.1 million will be home charge points, a slightly higher market share than the European average (74% in the UK, compared with a 73% average). Across Europe, currently around 23% of EV owners do not have off-street parking, the report highlights.

William van der Byl, EV charging service manager at Delta-EE, said: “While a small percentage of current EV owners don’t have access to home charge points, future drivers will be less likely to charge at home. In the UK, only two thirds of houses have off-street parking and so it’s important we continue to develop infrastructure that supports convenient charging – whether this is fast charging through HPCs or offering more workplace charging.”

The report goes on to note that the biggest segment growth will come in workplace charging as more drivers are unable to charge at home.

Van der Byl noted: “What’s interesting about the data on workplace charging is the split between employee/office charging and return to depot charging for fleet services. Today, return to depot charging is a small part of the market but we expect this to grow strongly and reach a near even split with charge points for employee/office use by 2030 as companies electrify their fleets.”

To date, a large amount of investment in EV chargepoint infrastructure has come from private finance, with the UK being a highly competitive market.

However, the National Infrastructure Strategy published in 2020 committed £1.3bn to support EV charging roll-out – a level of continued support that Delta-EE said delivers certainty to the EV charging market at a time when EV sales continue to break records.

To read Delta-EE’s EV research, click here.