The National Grid has announced that it has drawn up plans to deal with long-distance EV travelling in the UK, which would theoretically see the installation of 50 ultra-rapid charging stations across the country, with the potential for 350kW charging within 50 miles of any EV driver.

Clarifying earlier reports on Zap-Map and other news outlets, a National Grid spokesperson stated that these plans looked at how to enable electric vehicle take-up to continue accelerating by removing range anxiety even from EV sceptics.

The plans include solutions such as installing 50 ultra-rapid units at each charging station, which would create a huge and extremely important high-speed charging network.

The option of charging at 350kW would make each site future-proof from the off. There are currently no EVs on the market that can charge at even half that power, and even with the expected increase in battery capacities over the next 5-10 years, upgrades to EV charging capabilities will still see the units take a short amount of time to recharge.

Since the report comes from the National Grid, the charging stations proposed would be linked directly to the UK’s high-voltage grid. This would remove the need to create local grids with enough capacity to supply multiple ultra-high speed chargers.

The National Grid currently has no plans to build or operate any charging stations as a public EV charging network.

A National Grid spokesperson said: “If you overlay the motorway network over the transmission network, there is a synergy. The electricity transmission network runs close to motorway network and likely to be most efficient connection at many sites.

“In terms of how you space rapid chargers; 50 miles was used in the autonomous vehicles bill. When we mapped England and Wales with the grid, 90% of people using network would be within 50 miles of a rapid charger.

“We think the rollout of the charging points should be structured and co-ordinated. Rather than connecting one customer at a time and having a piecemeal approach, provide the infrastructure in a co-ordinated way. Our solution is about future proofing; not just for cars but for light goods vehicles and trucks in the future.”

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