Nissan predicts electric charging locations would outnumber fuel stations by 2020 in UK

Japanese carmaker, Nissan predicts there would be more public electric charging locations than traditional fuel stations in the UK in four year's time.

According to the company, which sells the best-selling electric car  the LEAF, in the country petrol stations had been in decline over the last four decades, with 75 per cent of forecourts open in 1970 now shut.

According to commentators, the demand overlap in 2020 projected on the basis of the comparison of the number of charging posts to the number of petrol 'stations' rather than individual fuel pumps misrepresented the UK's existing greater demand to fill up with petrol and diesel rather than electricity.

The number of fuel stations at the end of last year was only 8,472 fuel stations as compared to 37,439 in 1970, Nissan said.

At that rate of decline, it believed there would be less than 7,870 filling stations up and down the country by August 2020.

By way of contrast the increasing number of public electric vehicle charging 'locations' - which actually meant individual posts was expected to reach 7,900 by the same month in 2020.

However, the figures revealed by the car maker which has around 6,700 employees at its UK plant in Sunderland are not an accurate illustration of the overwhelming dominance of petrol and diesel car sales in the country right now, according to commentators.

In terms of numbers, that was just 46,000 alternative fuel vehicles registered in the UK as against almost 1.4 million petrol and diesel cars which meant for every AFV sold 30 combustion-engine models were purchased so far in 2016.

''As EV sales take off, the charging infrastructure is keeping pace and paving the way for convenient all-electric driving,'' Edward Jones, EV manager of Nissan Motors division in the UK said,  oilprice.com reported. ''Combine that with constant improvements in our battery performance and we believe the tipping point for mass EV uptake is upon us.''

Electric car registrations in the UK averaged one every thirteen minutes, as per information from the Go Ultra Low campaign spearheaded by the UK government and car industry. According to the organisation EV would become the main form of propulsion for autos in the UK by 2027.

Additionally, the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) noted the promising impact of the EV industry on the UK economy. Connected and autonomous EVs have been projected to generated US$67 billion per year by 2030  leading to 320,000 newly created industry jobs.