The UK government will invest £70m into rapid electric car chargers

In a bid to woo the driving element of the electorate, the government is throwing around more cash, investing a further £70 million into electric vehicle charging. This particular pot of gold will fund a pilot, rolling out more ultra-fast EV chargers at 10 motorway service sites in England.

The money will be used to improve the electricity supply network at these locations. For a while, rapid charging point providers have yammered on about the state of the electricity network in key zones, like service stations. They've said it isn't robust enough to roll out the kind of rapid charging point fields that would a) be helpful to EV drivers and b) make them money. So, this is the Chancellor's solution.

National Highways will deploy the hardware at each of the sites involved in the pilot. By boosting electricity network capacity, the aim of the pilot will be to ‘future-proof’ the supply through to 2035 (ish), which is the government’s revised deadline for the ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars if you recall.

Speaking at COP28, Mark Harper, UK transport secretary, said: “This government is on the side of drivers and working with the private sector to provide robust chargepoint infrastructure is part of our Plan for Drivers, with today’s announcement paving the way for more ultra-rapid charge points.

“This £70 million pilot scheme is the starting point and sends a message to consumers and industry that we are investing wisely and rapidly to grow the future of transport in the UK.”

Starting point, eh? This latest cash splash comes off the back of an additional £2 billion funding for building electric cars announced a few weeks ago – and that's without mentioning the freeze on fuel duty in the Spring statement and bigger budgets for potholes from the scrapped HS2 project.

We're told this latest release of money is part of the government 'rapid charging fund' (RCF), the model for which hasn't actually been decided yet. Figuring all that out also starts today, with a 10-week consultation with chargepoint operators, motorway service station providers and electricity suppliers to assess where and which chargers are needed most and how best to structure the funding.

The government's ambition is to create a network of 300,000 chargers by 2030.