Written question WQ87393

We are supporting the roll-out of publicly accessible electric vehicle charge-points in line with our EV Charging Strategy and Action Plan. This includes investment in rapid charging provision on the strategic road network and support for local authorities to deploy on street residential charging for those who can’t charge at home.

There are already more than 1,400 public charging points across Wales, approximately one for every nine battery electric vehicles, with the total UK figure being 1 chargepoint for approximately every 16 battery electric vehicle (BEV). The Action Plan has set out an approach to ensure that the number of charging points continue to grow to meet increasing demand as fossil fuel vehicles are phased out.

Since we published the Strategy in 2021, the installed charging infrastructure in Wales has already increased from 21 chargepoints per 100,000 residents (data in the Strategy is from June 2020) to 39 chargepoints per 100,000 residents, or around 84% growth.

We are proactively planning for the future EV charging network in Wales and have built a ‘preferred network’ webmap which identifies future demand scenarios and their spatial distribution. This will allow us to identify priority areas for installing EV charging infrastructure, to encourage and expediate public and private sector investment to take place in a way that meets growing demand and provides the best value to Wales, in line with the Strategy and Action Plan.