How does the charging infrastructure work for electric vehicles?

If you’re new to electric vehicles – perhaps you’re preparing to get one as your new company car or ready to receive an EV through a salary sacrifice scheme – the number and variety of chargers may seem confusing, daunting even. But don’t be put off.

Once you’ve charged ‘in the wild’ on the first occasion, you’ll feel like a pro the next time!

But back to the charging infrastructure: it ranges from street lampost chargers providing 3.4kW to 7kW to really thumping fast chargers providing between 350kW to 480kW.

The best bit of charging infrastructure you can have is a home charger, if that is available to you. A home charger is usually rated at 7kW which means you can plug the car in overnight and it will be charged in the morning. Nothing beats the convenience of that.

But not everyone has the luxury of a home charger. So what else is there?

On-street charging

Increasingly councils are installing on-street charging, usually through existing infrastructure, namely lampposts. You’ll need the charging cable which plugs into the lamppost and, once you’ve paid for the session, off you go. Many are rated at 7kW so a car with a 40kW battery will be charged up in around five to six hours. Many have cheaper night tariffs.

En-route charging

These are chargers you use during a longer journey to keep the battery topped up. Most en-route chargers are the rapid or ultra rapid variety. These can deliver between 50kW to 150kW (rapid) to fill your battery to 80% capacity in 30 to 60 minutes, while ultra rapid chargers, which are 150Kw+ to 350kW, will charge your car to 80% in some 20 minutes.

Rapid and ultra rapid chargers have a cable with a handle to attach to your car.

En-route chargers can be found at motorway service stations, or near major roads, to deliver a fast top up to allow you to get on your way quickly.

More and more ultra rapid chargers are being installed, often in specialist hubs. According to the charging map specialist Zapmap, 240 new rapid or ultra rapid chargers were added to the charging infrastructure in January 2025 making a total of 14,711.

Destination chargers

Destination chargers can be found at hotels, restaurants, national parks and so on. They are generally chargers offering 7kW to allow you to charge up while you are enjoying your visit.

Family and friends charging

If you have a cable with a three-pin plug, then these can be used at friends and family where there is off-street parking and the opportunity to run a cable from their domestic system. This will only be at 3.5kW so it will be slow, but a useful back up should you need it and there are no faster alternatives nearby.