Context on government vision for the rapid chargepoint network in England
In March 2020, the UK government made public its new charging vision. But first, I should mention that England is at a disadvantage compared to the rest of the UK; as opposed to the devolved authorities, it doesn't have its own regional government that can coordinate EV charge point installation.
The document I am referring to is the "Vision for the Rapid Chargepoint Network in England" by the DfT. It sets out the government’s plan for more than 6,000 high-power charge points on England's motorways and major A-roads by 2035.
That is great news, and hopefully meaningful results will come out of it. Supposedly, much of the funding will go into motorway chargers, with 6 to 12 planned for each service station along UK motorways—a meaningful increase from the current two chargers present (if there are any at all).
To give a bit of further context, let's look at what we have so far in terms of service station chargers.
In 2015, co-financed by the European Union’s TEN-T (Trans-European Transport Network) programme and four EV manufacturers (BMW, Nissan, Renault, and Volkswagen), together with energy companies (EDF, E.ON, ESB, and Verbund), the UK received €7.4 million to build 74 fast chargers.
That comes down to a cost of about £100k per charging point. Ecotricity managed the charging points for England. There is no word yet on who will be the “e-mobility operator” for the new ones, but considering the plan is to build 2,500 new charging points with the new budget, that’s £200k per charging point—twice the 2015 cost.
Long story short: it's good that there's a vision for the future, but for current EV drivers, it does not help much. The goal of having at least six high-power chargers installed at every MSA by 2023 is a lofty one, and I don't think they will make it.
If they are to succeed in their 2030 and 2035 goals, then I think they need to be far more aggressive than they are being right now. If they fail to meet the 2023 target, I fear that it will set the tone for EV adoption in the UK for the rest of the decade—at which point I suspect the 2030 and 2035 goals will fade into the background.
A few things have changed since 2015. We currently have around 809 motorway chargers and around 100k registered EVs; that’s about 120 cars per charger (excluding plug-in hybrids).
National Grid estimates 10 million EVs by 2030. Put that together with the planned number of motorway rapid chargers, and it comes down to about 3,000 cars per charger—that’s 25 times more than what we enjoy now, so expect these chargers to be quite busy!
There is not much more to say, except that I really hope the government succeeds in its vision. It will be for the benefit of all current and prospective EV drivers, and I look forward to seeing the results.