A Government target of having six or more rapid or ultra-rapid electric vehicle chargers at every motorway service area in England by the end of 2023 has been missed, according to new research conducted by the RAC.

In fact, the average only just misses the targets, with an average of five (4.9) devices at all 119 service areas in England, up from 3.4 at the end of April, and someone must be kicking themselves over the exact wording the Government chose.

The targets, published in the Government’s Taking Charge policy paper in March 2022, hoped that public and private efforts could accelerate installations, but currently 46 (39 per cent) of 119 motorway services reviewed by the RAC on Zapmap now have the target number of chargers above 50kW.

The good news is that there are now more than 400 ultra-rapid chargers at services which means more than half (55 per cent) can now offer some of the fastest possible charging speeds and only 18 service areas have no rapid charging above 50kW at all, and just four have no publicly accessible charging facilities whatsoever.

There are now 693 CCS connectors at the 101 services offering high-powered charging, an increase of 225, or 48 per cent. For the older CHAdeMO connectors predominantly used by Nissan and Renault electrics cars, there are now almost 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’ significantly.

There are now 14 services in England which have more than 12 such devices. The Moto-run services at Exeter on the M5 has the most high-powered chargers of all motorway services, with 24 devices.

RAC EV spokesperson Simon Williams said: “It’s clear from our research that the Government has fallen well short of its target of having six high-powered chargers at every motorway service area in England. While that’s the case, some very good progress has been made since the end of April when we last carried out our survey, with four-in-10 services now having met or exceeded the target number of chargers, compared to just under a quarter eight months ago.

“More clearly needs to be done to make this process simpler than it is currently. Hopefully once the Government’s Rapid Charging Fund kicks fully into action some of these hurdles will be overcome.”

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