Electric car drivers are set to receive a major boost at busy motorway service stations with seven locations receiving huge shipping containers filled with battery packs to shorten charging times during longer journeys.
National Highways has confirmed it has splashed out £8million to upgrade a selection of major motorway service areas in England where the electricity grid supply is not enough to support high-powered charging devices.
The services to benefit from the investment includes: Beaconsfield on the M4; Corley on the M6 Northbound; Clacket Lane on the M25, both Eastbound and Westbound; Maidstone on the M20; Taunton on the M5 Northbound; and Tebay on the M6 Northbound.
News of these fresh installations comes just two months after electric vehicle owners faced a Christmas charging nightmare, with Tesla owners sharing on social media their tales of being stuck in three-hour queues waiting to plug in at motorway service stations, including drivers at Tebay.
All seven service stations were identified as not currently having suitable infrastructure to provide ultra-rapid charging devices, which offer charging speeds of 150kW and more.
These devices are capable of charging an electric car’s battery from around 20 per cent capacity to 80 per cent in just 20 minutes and are seen as the future of enabling fuss-free charging for those completing longer journey’s in vehicles without combustion engines.
The enormous shipping containers will be installed on site at the seven motorway service station locations by the end of September, National Highways said.
They are described by the Government agency as a solution to ‘temporarily bridge the gap’ to when the grid is upgraded in those areas.
Read More: Is this the future to support long-distance journeys in electric cars?
