The UK, Netherlands, & California Have More EV Charging Ports Than Gas Pump Nozzles?
6 hours ago
Jake Richardson
Jake Richardson 14 Comments
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There’s a trend happening now that many people might not be paying attention to, yet is quite significant. Raymond Tribdino just wrote an article for CleanTechnica about how the Netherlands has focused on creating a robust EV charging infrastructure first rather than over-emphasizing electric vehicles without paying enough attention to charging. He explains the Netherlands already has quite a number of EV charging points. “With over 157,000 recharging points already operational, the network’s density far exceeds current demand. This apparent over-investment is a strategic preparation for a future policymakers see as inevitable. Government forecasts require a tripling of charging points by 2025 and an eight-fold increase by 2030 over 2023 numbers, with the market expected to surpass 200,000 units by 2025.”
The number of petrol and diesel fuel stations in that country right now is just over 4,000. This total number may be decreasing fairly soon, “If the number of electric passenger cars in the Netherlands continues to grow at the current pace and continues to replace petrol and diesel cars, it will lead to the closure of a third of the number of refuelling and charging stations in our country over the next 15 years: from 4,100 today to 2,750 by 2040.”
The number of fuel stations there is not the same as EV charging points because fuel stations have individual nozzles. So, how many petrol and diesel fuel nozzles are there? The Google AI overview came up with an estimate of about 48,000–50,000. If that estimate is accurate, the Netherlands has over 100,000 more EV charging ports than petrol and diesel fuel nozzles. These fossil fuel nozzles are expected to decline in number as there is greater adoption of electric vehicles. For some human context, the Netherlands has about 18 million people.
United Kingdom
It was just about a month ago that the CEO of Be.EV shared some information about how the United Kingdom could no longer have petrol or diesel fuel stations. While such a situation might seem unlikely or impossible to some, he explained, “The number of petrol stations in Britain has been in steady decline since the 1960s. According to the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), there were 38,000 filling stations in 1964. That number halved between 1992 and 2010 — dropping from 18,000 to around 9,000 — and has since stabilized at roughly 8,500.”
If there are over 80,000 EV charging ports available in the UK and about 1.6 million electric vehicles there, one might begin to see why there would be a decline in petrol and diesel fuel stations. The Google AI overview estimated the UK may have about 50,000–60,000 petrol and diesel fuel nozzles. If the estimate is accurate, the UK has more EV charging ports than fossil fuel nozzles. For the UK, the human context is a population of about 69 million.
California
The state of California has far more public EV charging ports than gas station fuel nozzles. There are approximately 120,000 gas pump nozzles, and 178,549 EV charging ports. There are an estimated 700,000 home EV chargers in California as well. The Golden State has about 39 million people. That is, the US state with the most people also has the most public EV chargers and the most electric vehicles. It also has the most home EV chargers. It’s worth noting there will be even more public and home EV chargers installed in California
British Columbia
It was reported recently that 1,212 EV chargers were installed in Richmond, BC; this is the largest single-site charger installation I have heard of. In BC, there were a little over 7,000 charging ports at the end of 2024. Counting the recently added 1,212 EV chargers, the total would be about 8,200. Funding has just been announced to add 480 more public EV chargers. When those are installed, the total will be a little over 8,600. However, the 1,212 chargers are actually for residents at their homes; they are not public EV chargers, so the number of public EV chargers would then be about 7,400, when the new 480 are installed.
If there are about 800–1000 gas stations in BC, and roughly 10 nozzles per station, the total number of nozzles would be 8,000–10,000.
It’s difficult to know exactly what the number of nozzles is because some gas pumps are at convenience stores, which sometimes have a couple of pumps with 2–3 nozzles and some gas pumps at convenience stores have 1–2. Dedicated gas stations with no convenience store may have 10–12 nozzles or more. It’s possible that currently BC may have a bit more gas and diesel fuel nozzles than public EV charging ports. According to the Google AI overview, there are over 40,000 home EV chargers in Canada. Though, who knows precisely if this total is accurate. If BC has about 195,000 EVs on the roads, and about 80% of charging happens at home, one could guess that’s at least thousands of home EV chargers there. At the moment, the total number of EV chargers, including public and home chargers, in British Columbia is most likely greater than the number of gas and diesel fuel nozzles, but the number of public EV chargers is lower. BC’s human population is about 5.7 million.
For the above nations, one state, and one Canadian province, the trend is an increasing number of public EV chargers and a decreasing number of fossil fuel stations, pumps, and nozzles. The total population for all the areas is about 126 million people, and in them there are already more public and home EV chargers than gas and diesel fuel nozzles.
EV Charging Progress
All this progress was made during the time before Covid when electric vehicles did not have the highest range typically and throughout Covid with its economic turbulence. It also has taken place during a time when all sorts of online trolls, haters, and liars have tried to spread disinformation and misinformation about electric vehicles. It took place during the first Trump administration and the current, second Trump administration. Donald “Fossil Fuels” Trump has clearly been against clean, renewable electricity and fully electric vehicles.
The increasing trend for more and more EV chargers in public spaces and homes is a great success story that is largely going unnoticed. When will there be so few gas and diesel fuel stations that internal combustion engine vehicles begin to have “range anxiety?” And remember that they will not be able to refuel at home. There might be a point where they have more “range anxiety” than electric vehicle drivers have ever had
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