Two hundred new ultra-rapid chargers have gone live at motorway services in England since the beginning of the year in a supercharged rollout of infrastructure.

Almost half (48%) of the 114 motorway services in England now have six or more 150kW+ chargers

Analysis carried out by Zapmap and the RAC reveals a 51% increase in installations of 150kW+ chargers over the last eight months, leading to a new record for installation numbers.

It means almost half (48%) of the 114 motorway services in England now have six or more of these 150kW+ ultra-rapid chargers, of which many provide chargers that offer the very fastest speeds of up to 350kW.

The data also reveals that ultra-rapid chargers now represent nearly three-quarters (73%) of all high-powered devices at motorway services so far this year, up from 54% a year ago.

In 2022, the Conservative government set an ambition of having six or more high-powered 50kW+ chargers at every motorway services areas in England by the end of 2023.

The new data does show this has not yet been met, with 54% (61 sites) of motorway services areas having six or more 50kW+ chargers.

But the RAC and Zapmap said developments within the charging industry mean the previous target has been somewhat eclipsed by the move to much faster chargers. Nearly two-thirds (64% – 73 sites) of all MSAs in England have at least one ultra-rapid 150kW+ charger, often in addition to other ‘slower’ rapid chargers.

There are also six motorway locations with more than 12 150kW+ chargers. These are Reading M4 east and westbound, Cobham M25, Exeter M5, Gloucester M5 northbound and Frankley M5 southbound.

The analysis also reveals the services that have the most 150kW+ chargers; Frankley on the M5 southbound has 28 with Reading on the M4 westbound having 25. While many locations also have additional Tesla chargers, Tesla now allows drivers of any make of EV to use their chargers at four of them.

Looking at high-powered charging over 50kW across England as a whole, each motorway services has an average of seven chargers (meaning there is a total of 818 at 114 sites). Just taking ultra-rapid chargers, there is an average of five at every services in England (595 at 114 sites).

Only four MSAs do not have any charging provision over 50kW at present. Two of these, Leicester Forest East M1 north and southbound, are run by Welcome Break. The motorway services operator said it had been hit by difficulties bringing sufficient power to the sites. The company is working to resolve this with National Grid Electricity Distribution, National Highways and the local authorities and hopes to install ultra-rapid chargers next year.

The other two other locations with no rapid charge points – Sedgemoor M5 northbound and Telford M54 – are still awaiting high-powered connections to the electricity grid. Gridserve, which runs the nationwide Electric Highway network at motorway services, confirmed it is hoping to start installing chargers at Sedgemoor in 2025.

RAC head of policy Simon Williams said the progress in charging rollout was extremely impressive, despite the previous government’s target having been missed.

“As we’ve long said, this is just what’s needed to give current and prospective EV drivers the reassurance to know they can get back on the road quickly when making long journeys beyond the range of their cars.”

Williams also noted that the main stumbling block often lies with getting the required high-powered connections to the country’s national electricity grid.

“More needs to be done to make this process faster and simpler than it is currently. This is the exact point of the Government’s £950m Rapid Charging Fund, so it would be good to see this delivering more high-speed connections soon.”

Zapmap co-founder and chief operating officer Melanie Shufflebotham said: “We know from our surveys and data that motorway service areas are very popular, convenient charging locations, and as more people make the switch to electric, it is important that there is sufficient visible provision at each and every motorway service area.”

Zapmap also noted that high-powered hubs for charging en-route are also being deployed close to popular routes in many locations, to supplement chargers available at motorway service areas. In addition to the 61 hubs in motorway service areas, there are 302 such hubs with six or more 50kW+ devices across England.

Melanie Shufflebotham added: “The huge growth of charging hubs, typically very close to key routes, means that EV drivers do not need to solely rely on the motorway service areas, and have a broad range of options from which to choose.”