With as many as two million passengers expected to pass through the Port of Dover this summer, and hundreds of thousands of vehicles boarding Le Shuttle in Folkestone, there will be plenty of British cars on Europe’s roads this summer. And more than ever, they will be pure electric (EV) or hybrid.
While the percentage of EVs in the UK is still in single figures, it’s growing fast. The 25 per cent market share of new fully electric registrations this year is likely to be tempered only by the high upfront cost of EVs and anxiety about range and charging infrastructure.
Some of those concerns may be compounded on a road trip abroad. Will you make it over the Channel on a single charge, and what will the charging options be like once there?
The most recent statistics for public charging in the UK, published in April 2026 by the Department for Transport, showed there were 119,080 public EV chargers with more than 3,000 added in the first quarter of the year. Half of all public chargers are rated as standard (slow charging), with less than a quarter rapid or ultra-rapid.
RAC Fuel Watch and Zapmap Price Index figures show that standard charging costs 54p per kWh on average, but ultra-rapid charging is much more expensive at around 83.5p per kWh.
