Government misses target for rapid chargers at motorway services

Research conducted by the RAC found that 46 of 119 motorway services reviewed on Zapmap have the target number of chargers above 50kW to serve the UK’s growing fleet of battery-electric vehicles, which should have exceeded the one million milestone by the end of 2023. The number of rapid chargers has grown from 27 (23 per cent) at the end of April.

Since the end of spring a further 178 high-powered chargers have been installed at motorway services. Positively, there are now over 400 ultra-rapid chargers at services which means 55 per cent can offer some of the fastest possible charging speeds to drivers. 18 service areas have no rapid charging above 50kW, but four have no publicly accessible charging facilities whatsoever, namely Leicester Forest on both sides of the M1, Tebay South on the M6, and Barton Park on the A1(M).

There are now 693 Combined Charging System (CCS) connectors at the 101 services offering high-powered charging, which is an increase of 48 per cent. For the CHAdeMO connectors predominantly used by Nissan and Renault electrics cars, there are now 282, up 32 per cent compared to the end of April. Seventy per cent of all high-power motorway charging is now ultra-rapid, reducing the time drivers need to spend ‘filling up’.