THE number of electric public vehicle charging points in Gwent has rocketed over the past year.

Figures from the Department for Transport show there were 441 points in Gwent as of October – up from 237 just one year earlier. This is an increase of 86 per cent.

It comes as Vauxhall, who analysed the data, said more must be done to meet the rising demand for electric cars.

Of these, the greatest number are in Newport, were there were 135 points last month, including 44 rapid chargers. This is up from 72 in October 2022.

In Monmouthshire there were 96 publicly-available electric vehicle charging devices, including 17 rapid chargers – up from 56 a year earlier.

Blaenau Gwent saw the greatest rise, with 85 public points registered last month – including seven rapid chargers. This is up from 32 in October 2022 – an increase of 165 per cent.

In Caerphilly the DfT figures show there were 73 publicly-available electric vehicle charging devices, including 13 rapid chargers, up from 47 12 months earlier.

And Torfaen has the lowest number, with 52, including five rapid chargers. This is up from 30 charging devices in October 2022.

Across the UK, there were nearly 49,220 publicly available chargers as of October – a 42 per cent jump from 2022. Of them, 8,908 were rapid chargers.

The figures also show on-street electric vehicle chargers for homes without driveways have increased by 69 per cent in the last 12 months, with 4,094 new installations recorded in the last quarter.

James Taylor, managing director at Vauxhall, said: "It’s a good signal, but we’re still at the beginning of the journey. We need to up the pace if we’re to make sure the 40 per cent of households without driveways are not left behind in the transition to electric vehicles and do more outside of London."

He added: "The 4,094 new installations is a start, but next year it is forecast there will be hundreds of thousands more new EV cars being registered to comply with the Vehicles Emissions Trading Scheme – we are making progress, but more is needed to match demand."

The availability of chargers varied across the UK, with the highest in London where there were 193 chargers per 100,000 people. On the other end of the scale, Northern Ireland had just 23 per 100,000 people.

In Wales, there were 66 electric vehicle chargers per 100,000 people.

You can view locations of public electric vehicle charging points at zap-map.com