Only 46 of 119 stations support fast charging
The UK government did not achieve its goal — have six or more ultra-fast (150–350kW) EV chargers at every motorway service station in England by the end of 2023.
New analysis published by the RAC found that only 46 of the country's 119 petrol stations met the criteria set by the Department for Transport in May 2020.
This confirms a December 2023 report from Autocar that the target was missed because many petrol stations were limited to charging below 150kW. Some locations, including Barton Park, Leicester Forest and Tebay South, still lack any electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
There were 53,029 electric vehicle charging points in the UK at the end of November 2023, according to charger mapping service Zap-Map. Of these, only 4505 supported ultra-fast charging.
Charging station operators have previously highlighted that the slow pace of grid connections is a major barrier to installing new chargers. Gridserve CEO Toddington Harper told Autocar: «Almost all adoption speed issues depend on the speed of the network connection».
Harper added that operators «can often be delayed for months or more waiting for connection».