It says 90% of people using motorways in England and Wales could be within 50 miles of a 350kW rapid charger, which can recharge a vehicle battery in five to 15 minutes.

 

Up to 50 charging points placed at each location should, it adds, avoid queues at peak times. It estimates that the necessary investment in grid infrastructure will be between £500M and £1Bn.

 

National Grid says that the roll out of charging infrastructure should be “structured and co-ordinated” rather than connecting one customer at a time. 

 

“Range anxiety is consistently given as a major reason for not buying an electric vehicle and we’ve put forward a solution that addresses this,” says the organisation’s electric vehicles project director Graeme Cooper. 

 

“If you overlay the motorway network over the electricity transmission network, there is a synergy,” he added, pointing out that the electricity transmission network runs close to the motorway network.

 

“We want to show that infrastructure needn’t be a barrier to electric vehicle growth and a structured and co-ordinated roll out of rapid chargers is achievable.”

 

Highways England's head of intelligent transport systems Dr Joanna White said the company has a Road Investment Period commitment to install rapid charge points so that customers will be within 20 miles of a chargepoint on 95% of the network by April 2020. “We are working with a number of stakeholders to deliver this,” she said, adding: “Helping overcome the particular constraints of long distance travel for ultra-low emission vehicles is part of our air quality strategy to help accelerate the uptake of such vehicles.

“To help move towards a zero emissions society, we would like to see even greater provision of charging facilities to support our customers on the Strategic Road Network in the next road period and welcome National Grid’s work.”