An announcement from the UK government has, more or less out of nowhere, outlined plans to make multiple EV charging points mandatory at motorway service stations and all 'larger' filling stations

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This scene might not change too much in the coming years...

That escalated quickly! Barely a few hours after Shell announced its first EV charging points at petrol stations, the UK government has unveiled plans to make them compulsory at all large fuel forecourts and motorway service stations. Transport Minister John Hayes has announced the Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill, which includes instructions that ‘multiple charging points’ should be installed at all such sites. It should double the current charging infrastructure, estimates say, and place charging points at locations that people already know and associate with refuelling.

What constitutes a ‘larger’ filling station is still unclear, and we expect more details on that in due course. That said, it will probably be sensible for all forecourts, large or small, to have at least a couple of charging points. There’s still no mention of the time and space issue, whereby a handful of charging points won’t be enough to serve demand if every car has to sit there for half an hour or more. We expect the government to say it won’t be a problem because most people should recharge at home. How true that will turn out to be… well, we’ll see.

EV charging points incoming