The government plans to break Ecotricity’s service station EV charging monopoly
New chargers will be fitted with legislation planned to ensure reliability.
Electric vehicle owners will soon have more charging choice on long trips as the government is planning to break the charging monopoly on the motorway network.
As it stands, Ecotricity is the only provider with a contract to supply electric vehicle chargers at motorway service stations.
However, electric vehicle consumer site Electrifying.com says the network has been criticised by owners for providing ‘outdated and unreliable hardware’.
In an interview with the website, Transport Minister Rachel Maclean said new chargers from other service providers would be fitted by 2023, with at least six at each service station and legislation used to ensure reliability.
Maclean said: “We do believe it will take government investment to ‘charge up’ this market. So we’ve got nearly £1 billion to upgrade those connections at motorway service stations. What we are going to have is at least six high power chargers in every motorway service area by 2023.”
This money will be used to fit fast chargers of at least 150kW, with easy contactless payment choices. There could be up to 12 chargers fitted at major sites with speeds of up to 350kW, and they would be in addition to any Tesla chargers at a site, as well as being available to owners of any brand of EV.
Maclean added that the government has ‘doubled the funding available to local councils to improve charging infrastructure’ and urged EV owners to get in touch with their local representatives if they’re concerned about a lack of charge points near them.
The government has launched a consultation on the consumer experience at electric vehicle charge points, which can be accessed through the gov.uk website.
