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The UK’s rollout of electric car chargers slackened markedly in 2025 amid investor concerns over a slower-than-expected switch to cleaner battery vehicles.

There were 87,200 chargers installed in the UK at the end of November, an increase of 13,500 compared with the end of 2024, according to data from Zapmap, which tracks charger installations.

That represented the smallest number of new chargers installed in the UK since 2022, and put the industry on track for growth of less than 20%, down from 37% the year before. It would be the slowest annual growth in the decade since installations started to take off.

The number of electric cars sold is still growing rapidly, accounting for 23% of British sales in the first 11 months of 2025 – up from 19% at the same point last year. However, growth has not been as quick as previously expected. Some manufacturers have slowed their switch from petrol to electric, while some investors in charging infrastructure have also slowed down.

Carmakers persuaded the UK government to weaken electric car sales targets despite warnings from the charging industry that lower sales would imperil investment.

Colin Walker, the head of transport at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a thinktank, said the slowdown in charger installations this year was “no surprise” given the “rather mixed messages on EVs” from the UK government, including a new pay-per-mile tax on electric cars from 2028, announced at last month’s budget.

“Its weakening of the zero emission vehicle mandate could incentivise the sale of plug-in hybrids rather than EVs,” he said. “And while it won’t change the fact that EVs will remain considerably cheaper to run, the 3p per mile tax on EVs risks undermining consumer confidence. All of this could slow EV sales considerably, which, in turn, could undermine business confidence and slow investment in the public charging infrastructure this country needs.”

There were 48,100 slow chargers at the end of November, an increase of 15% over the year. The number of ultra-rapid chargers, which tend to be used for quick top-ups on longer journeys, rose 39% to about 9,800.

Vicky Read, the chief executive of ChargeUK, a lobby group for the charging industry, said that there had been fewer installations than the industry wanted of slow chargers, which tend to be used to charge more cheaply overnight.

“Across the market charge point operators have been facing rapidly rising costs, which has impacted the pace of the rollout in some more commercially challenging locations, while grid connections continue to hold back installations,” she said.

Some analysts believe that the UK’s charger rollout is on track. The supply of public charging across Great Britain remains ahead of demand by 1.5 years, according to analysis in September by Cenex, a non-profit research body. However, rapid chargers by motorways for longer journeys are much more developed: existing charge points could cope with demand for the next six years without any more added, Cenex said.

Read said delayed local electric vehicle infrastructure (Levi) funding for councils would start arriving in bulk in 2026 and 2027, helping installations to accelerate again.

She said: “To ensure we stay on track as we make this transition, we need to have the government’s support to reduce the cost burden – which is affecting driver prices as well as pace of rollout – and to remove the bottlenecks like connecting to the grid.”

Despite the UK’s progress in charger installations, the regional variations remain large. Northern Ireland, the poorest region in the UK, has only 39 public chargers for each 100,000 people, compared with 301 for London, according to Zapmap data last updated in October. Northern Ireland, the East Midlands and north-east England were the slowest regions for charger installations per person in the year to October.

Melanie Shufflebotham, the Zapmap chief operating officer, said there was still “strong growth in ultra-rapid charging”.

“Charge point operators face challenges as the tender and commercial contract process for the Levi fund have taken longer than anticipated, and in parallel, there are also concerns in terms of accessing grid connections in a timely fashion,” she added.

UK-listed companies will be able to bury controversies over executive pay for the first time in eight years, a thinktank has warned, after the Labour government shut down a public tracker meant to curb “abuses and excess in the boardroom”.

The public register was launched under the Tory prime minister Theresa May in 2017 to name and shame companies hit by shareholder revolts at their annual general meetings (AGMs). That included rebellions over issues such as excessive bonuses or salary increases for top earning bosses.

However, the Treasury – under the chancellor, Rachel Reeves – instructed the Investment Association (IA), the UK asset management trade body that maintained the register, to shut it down this autumn as part of a wider regulation action plan to increase economic growth by cutting “red tape” for businesses. The closure of the public log follows lobbying campaign by companies including the London Stock Exchange, whose bosses claim bad publicity over executive pay is harming the City’s competitiveness and deterring UK listings.

However, the High Pay Centre, a thinktank, is warning the move will harm transparency and make it easier for companies listed on the FTSE All-Share Index to dismiss investors’ concerns, starting in the 2026 annual shareholder meetings season.

“This is worrying, from our perspective,” Paddy Goffey, a researcher at the thinktank, said. “This would make it more likely that significant cases of shareholder dissent on issues of pay, governance and wider strategy will go unnoticed.”

About 26% of FTSE 100 companies have had a shareholder rebellion against executive pay over the past three years. Dissent is considered a shareholder rebellion if 20% or more of the vote is against a specific resolution. “This reflects the significant levels of dissent within shareholder votes and how crucial such information is for investors and other stakeholders,” Goffey said.

The High Pay Centre acknowledged corporate reporting rules could be burdensome and complex, and should be streamlined. However, that should not include discontinuing tools such as the register that provided genuine value to stakeholders, the thinktank said. The closure added to other “worrying trends” around corporate transparency such as the shift to online-only AGMs.

Rather than closing the register, companies should be forced to provide more detailed explanations about the reason for shareholder dissent and how their boards planned to respond in the future, the High Pay Centre said.

“Ultimately, discontinuing the register will make it much harder and more time-consuming to gather the relevant data and information, as such data could be ‘buried’ in complex filings, AGM results or lengthy reports,” it added.

The decision illustrates the significant cultural shift that has taken place across the City since the May government launched the world’s first public log of dissenting shareholder votes in order to “restore public confidence in big business”.

“It [the register] definitely had a role in holding companies to account in the early years, especially on remuneration, and for a while companies truly did worry about the prospect of being named on the register,” said Yousif Ebeed, the corporate governance lead at the assent managers Schroders.

“And at the time, there was a sense that companies were not giving sufficient weight to shareholder concerns. The register helped shine a light on these companies, to an extent kickstarting an environment where transparency and shareholder engagement have become embedded practice.”

Fast forward to 2025, and City campaigners are raising fears that the UK is losing out on investment to the US, where Donald Trump has embarked on a “bonfire of regulation” in an attempt to lure money and business.

The UK Treasury said in October tit was “grateful to the IA for establishing the register following a request from government” but that the public log had “served its purpose”. The Treasury added that the corporate governance code “already offered transparency for investors”.

Ebeed said most institutional investors would remain “unaffected”.

However, at a time when the government is pushing for more of the public to buy up UK shares, there is a fear that small retail investors could be left at a disadvantage.

“The reduction in transparency and knowledge on company practice could reduce the ability of investors to make informed decisions,” Goffey said.

“Having all this data in one place also makes it easier to track discontent, identify trends and compare companies or sectors. It is plausible that, with the raising of the barrier to holding companies accountable in this way, they [companies] will be less likely to take such dissent seriously and respond appropriately.”

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American Eagle pays an annual dividend of $0.50, yielding 1.84%. Its most recent quarterly cash dividend of $0.125 per share is payable on Jan. 23, 2026, to shareholders of record on Jan. 9, 2026. While modest, the payout reinforces balance-sheet stability and shareholder alignment.

On Dec. 2, American Eagle reported Q3 fiscal 2025 earnings that exceeded expectations on both revenue and profit, sending shares up 15.1% the following session. Revenue rose 5.7% year-over-year (YOY) to $1.36 billion, surpassing Wall Street’s $1.32 billion forecast.

The company delivered record third-quarter revenue, led by Aerie’s double-digit comparable sales growth and positive momentum at American Eagle. Net income climbed 14.2% from the prior year to $91.34 million, while EPS increased 29.3% to $0.53, beating the $0.44 Street estimate.

Buoyed by stronger trends, American Eagle’s management has raised fourth-quarter operating income guidance to $155–$160 million, based on comparable sales growth of 8% to 9%. This marks a significant upgrade from prior guidance of $125–$130 million, which assumed low single-digit comps.

For the full year, adjusted operating income guidance has risen to $303–$308 million, with comparable sales in the low single digits. This compares with prior guidance of $255–$265 million on flat comps.

Meanwhile, analysts project fiscal 2025 Q4 EPS to rise 22.2% YOY to $0.66. However, full-year fiscal 2025 EPS may decline 23.6% to $1.33, before rebounding 18.8% to $1.58 in fiscal year 2026, reflecting normalization after outsized volatility.

Wall Street maintains a cautious stance on AEO. The stock holds a consensus “Hold” rating, with two of 13 analysts recommending “Strong Buy,” nine advising “Hold,” one suggesting “Moderate Buy,” and one issuing a “Strong Sell,” underscoring divided conviction.

AEO stock already trades above its average price target of $22.70, signaling that much optimism is priced in. However, the Street-high target of $31 implies potential upside of 16.3% from current levels.

On the date of publication, Aanchal Sugandh did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com