Nissan is predicting that electric vehicle charging stations will outnumber gas stations in the UK, within the next four years.

There will be more public locations to charge electric cars in the UK than there are gas stations by the summer of 2020, according to new report by Nissan.

At the end of 2015, there were just 8,472 fuel stations in the UK, down from 37,539 in 1970. Assuming a steady rate of decline, Nissan predicts that by August 2020 this will fall to under 7,870.

In contrast, the number of public electric vehicle charging locations is expected to reach 7,900 by the same point in time, or sooner.

According to numbers compiled by Nissan, more than 75% of UK gas stations have closed in the last 40 years, while the number of electric vehicle charging locations has increased from a few hundred in 2011 to more than 4,100 locations in 2016, as electric car sales take off.