U.K. Charging Network Sees 1 Millionth Juice Refill

Electric vehicles in the U.K. have passed 1 million charges using Chargemaster’s nationwide network of charging points.

The company says the system has provided drivers with about 9.5 million kWh of electricity since September 2012, enough to drive their EVs more than 49 million miles (79 million km).

Chargemaster last year installed its 10,000th public and commercial charging point.

The company records all charging events and while it took nearly two years to rack up 500,000 charges, from the first one in September 2012 to the half-millionth in July, it took just six months to reach the 1 million mark.

The rapid growth in EV charging is supported by figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, which show the number of plug-in cars registered in the U.K. quadrupled from 3,586 in 2013 to 14,498 last year.

Chargemaster has a manufacturing facility at Luton Airport producing more than 2,000 charging units a month.

CEO David Martell says the figures from the company’s charging network echo the recent positive news from the U.K. motor industry regarding the growth in EV sales.

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