The UK is expected to see its busiest-ever day for EV charging on Saturday as the summer holiday getaway begins.

Moto’s new ‘Motofesto’ lifts the lid on some of the major barriers that industry faces in addressing the electric charging supply gap

Nearly 400,000 EV drivers will be on the roads this weekend for leisure trips, according to Moto’s estimates.

The motorway services operator is expecting to provide at least one million EV kilometres in charging at its sites alone in so-called ‘Surge Saturday’ – the result of significant increases in EV ownership in recent years, combined with one of the busiest holiday getaway weekends of the year,

Moto is deploying special EV marshals to help manage queues at its busiest sites – located on major routes to holiday destinations including the South West, Wales, Cumbria, Scotland and the North East.

But CEO Ken McMeikan said that any EV queues this weekend were unfortunately inevitable, as he set out a nine-point action plan for the Government to increase charging capacity across the country.

McMeikan elaborated: “This weekend’s queues will unfortunately be inevitable if more action isn’t taken to support charging providers’ roll-out of Ultra-Rapid EV charging. The UK needs to decarbonise, and the switch to EV is one of the most important elements of that. However, as charging providers, time and time again we‘re being confronted by significant barriers in our ambition to make that switch easier for motorists.”

Moto’s new ‘Motofesto’ lifts the lid on some of the major barriers that industry faces in addressing the electric charging supply gap.

In particular, it points to the challenges that Moto and others are facing when it comes to securing power and the necessary grid connections.

Meikan continued: “Upscaling and maintaining an ultra-rapid charging network for our strategic road network alone would need grid capacity equivalent to the average annual electricity usage of nearly three quarters of a million homes by 2030 – more than three times as many homes as there are in Cumbria. It’s a huge power challenge that is underestimated and underappreciated by Government. We can secure and install the chargers relatively easily, but delivering power to those chargers is becoming a major issue.”

It’s calling for changes to the way the Government, DNOs, charging providers and others collaborate to deliver charging infrastructure.

Amongst other recommendations, the Motofesto calls on the Government to designate public EV infrastructure as ‘nationally significant’ and speed up planning consents for network connections, or risk having UK motorists being forced to queue for hours at a time in order to charge their car at a public charging hub.

Motofesto expectations for public EV charging infrastructure: 

Identify EV infrastructure development as ‘nationally significant’ and speed up planning consents for network connections

Create further EV installation targets for motorways and A-roads that currently oblige landlords, motorway service operators and local authorities to deliver and meet 2030 charging demands together (currently, the Government’s targets only apply to the motorway service operators through to the end of 2023 and don’t create incentive for other organisations involved to support)

To tackle prohibitively expensive grid connections, accelerate immediate access to the £950m rapid charging fund which was originally announced in 2020

Dramatically increase the UK’s sustainable power to keep EV drivers moving on net zero carbon energy

Introduce laws to help companies who install critical EV infrastructure in negotiations with their landlords

Reinstate the Plug-in Car Grant for more affordable new models and extend it to used EV cars

Scrap the 20% rate of VAT on public chargers, or bring it into line with the home charging rate at 5%

Put the brakes on the planned introduction of Vehicle Duty for electric cars

Launch a sustained publicity campaign on the benefits and practicalities of EV ownership

To read the full Motofesto, please click here.

New battery intelligence could open up rapid charging

In separate news, battery intelligence software firm Elysia says fitting EVs in the factory with its technology could cut charging queues.

Its suite of algorithms can safely unlock extra performance from an electric vehicle battery, bringing a host of benefits for plug-in car makers, which in turn can be passed on to consumers, such as faster charging.

The company estimates that a typical electric vehicle could rapid-charge 25% faster if it was equipped with its software, reducing the time spent on a charger by 10 minutes, alleviating queues and resulting in much more efficient use of the rapid charging network but said to bring no impact to battery life.

Elysia commercial lead Joe Jones said: “Elysia offers car makers a much more sophisticated approach, unlocking improved performance safely and with no impact on battery life. Our intelligent charging algorithms allow the Battery Management System (BMS) to understand what conditions have the potential to damage the battery, and then using this information stay closer to the peak charging rate for longer, without ‘overstepping’ these limits.

“By reducing the time spent on a rapid charger by 10 mins for a typical electric vehicle, Elysia can increase the number of cars each charger can service in a day. The benefit here being twofold: happier electric car owners and more efficient utilisation of the existing rapid charging network.”