Charger providers under scrutiny
Government’s competition watchdog steps in and suggests major improvements
Last month, the British government’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that it was investigating the long-term exclusive deals between EV charging point provider Electric Highway (recently sold by Ecotricity to Gridserve) and motorway service station operators Extra, Moto and Roadchef.
When you exclude Tesla’s Supercharger network, Electric Highway accounts for 80% of all motorway service station charging points in this the UK, and the CMA’s concern is that the lack of competition could mean less provision, less choice and higher prices over the coming years.
With new petrol and diesel vehicles set to be banned from sale in 2030 and hybrids due to suffer the same fate five years later, questions are being raised over the readiness of the UK’s charging network to support the mass switchover.
A few years ago, National Grid estimated there could be 11 million EVs on our roads by 2030 and 36 million by 2040.