Mass market EVs have arrived.

Looking at the top 15 bestselling electric cars by volume (representing about half the market), in 2024 their average battery capacity, peak charging power and average charging power were all slightly lower than in 2023. You might expect batteries to be getting ever bigger, charge rates ever quicker. And technology-wise, bigger and faster is possible. So what's going on?

It is clear that mass market EVs have arrived.

Data has shown that the average cost of the bestsellers in 2024 was more than £5k less than 2023. As well as this, overall 130 unique models were registered in 2024 vs 98 in 2023, indicating that there is a broader choice for consumers.

The new entrants into the 2024 bestseller list reflect the smaller, somewhat cheaper cars that consumers have been waiting for, bringing with them smaller battery packs and less powerful (but still very rapid) charging:

• The Hyundai Kona (£30,450) 
• Volvo EX30 (£33,795) 
• Cupra Born (£34,715) 
• Vauxhall Mokka (£30,840)

Conversely, the very powerful but also very expensive Porsche Taycan (£75,500) dropped out.

The top 15 can be seen in the table below:

The top five continue to be dominated by the Teslas and Audi Q4 E-Tron, but the humble MG4 also held its top five place in 2024, as the cheapest of the bestsellers at £28,495.

This shows that charging power trends matter. Osprey's strategy is to install hubs that deliver the maximum kWh to the maximum number of cars simultaneously, from the available power at that site.

This plateau in charging power validates our roll-out of 150kW (300kW on 800V system) load-balancing charge points, which easily meet the power capabilities of the bestselling EVs in both years, charging 20-80% in 15-30 minutes.

Those cars that can charge at higher peak powers will not sustain this for more than a few minutes and only in optimum conditions, hence tracking average charging power as the practical metric.

In 2024 we upgraded 16 existing sites with more and faster chargers. We will continue to do this where it makes commercial sense: to meet the capabilities of the cars on the road, maximise the number of customers we can serve, and ultimately giving our customers the very best experience.

Data sources: SMMT, ev database