This is still a staggering 9,154 behind France in first, though, which installed 11,987 new charging points, and 5,104 behind Germany (7,937), according to data from charging point locator app Zap-Map.
However, Britain is just ahead of Switzerland at 2,716, Austria (2,232) and Norway (2,166), although those countries have significantly lower population levels.
Car parks group Indigo, which collated Zap-Map’s information, said: ‘The number of electric vehicles in the world hit a new record in 2016, accelerating past the two million barrier, as prices fell and manufacturers launched new models.
‘This proves that countries around the world are at the forefront of stimulating [electric vehicle] deployment. But where are all the charging points?’
Many countries in Europe, where a total of 220,000 electric and hybrid vehicles were sold last year, are also planning to increase electric car sales.
Germany aims to have more than one million electric cars on its roads by 2020, while the Netherlands proposes to ban combustion engines by 2025.
At the beginning of last July, France said it would end all sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040 as part of its commitment to meeting the targets of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.
Later that month, the UK government followed suit by announcing that new diesel and petrol cars would be banned from 2040.
Developments in technology, such as batteries capable of giving driving ranges of between 280 and 350 miles, are also increasing electric car sales.
Indigo added: ‘Owners of an EV have the advantage of much lower running costs.
‘The electricity to charge an EV works out at around a third as much per kilometre as buying petrol for the same vehicle. Not only that, but by choosing to drive an EV you are helping to reduce harmful air pollution from exhaust emissions. An EV has zero exhaust emissions.’
