Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in achieving their target for motorway stations to have six rapid or ultra-rapid chargers by the end of 2023; and when they expect this to be achieved.

The Department has recently collected updated chargepoint numbers for the end of 2023 from motorway service area operators (MSAOs). There are now 800 open-access (can be used with any electric vehicle) rapid (50kW) and ultra-rapid (150Kw+) chargepoints at motorway service areas (MSAs) in England.

More than 565 chargepoints are ultra-rapid. This is a substantial increase of over 300 extra ultra-rapid chargers at MSAs in the last year.

56 of the 114 MSA sites now have at least six ultra-rapid open access chargepoints. Government is working closely with the distribution network operators, MSAOs, chargepoint operators and other key stakeholders in industry on wider challenges to chargepoint rollout and overcoming barriers at those sites that still need to reach their baseline provision.

One of the challenges faced by some is the cost of the grid upgrades. To address this, the £70m Rapid Charging Fund pilot, launched in December 2023, will help support MSA sites with the cost of the grid connections where it is currently not commercially viable, investing alongside the private sector.