Government plans EV charge point improvement

29 March 2022

The Government has announced a strategy to improve the infrastructure of charging electric vehicles, expecting a tenfold expansion in charge points to 300,000 by 2030.

Backed by £1.6bn, the new Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy will see £500 million invested in public charge points across the UK, including a £450 million Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) fund for projects such as EV hubs providing on-street charging for those without driveways. 

The government says the existing £950 million Rapid Charging Fund will support the rollout of at least 6,000 ‘super-fast’ charge points across England’s motorways by 2035 – albeit some 13 years away.

It adds that operators are already committed to installing an additional 15,000 ‘rapid’ charging points across England’s road network, and reaching over 100,000 on-street chargers by 2025.

The government says it is mandating operators to provide real-time data about charge points so that consumers can compare prices, and to pay using contactless cards. 

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders recently suggested that the provision of charging points is not keeping pace with the increasing sales of electric vehicles, and that the pace of the roll-out must increase dramatically in order to meet the Government’s emissions targets. 

This lack of availability is one of the issues that has been highlighted in a series of blog posts about the real-life experience of driving an EV for business. 

● bp pulse, the energy company’s EV charging business, intends to invest £1bn over the next ten years to approximately triple the number of public charging points in its UK network by 2030. This will include the accelerated roll-out of 300kW and 150kW 'ultra-fast' chargers. 

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