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The best EV charging points on Britain’s motorways
If you’ve joined the electric vehicle revolution or are considering doing so, this report will help with your route planning on longer journeys.
We’ve taken Britain’s 10 longest motorways and, using the Zap-Map resource, added up the charging points at motorway services on each of them. For simplicity’s sake, we didn’t go off motorway.
We then doubled the motorway length to account for charging points on both carriageways and divided that figure by the number of connectors.
The result enables us to rank the motorways from one to 10, by charging points per mile. The bigger the number, the greater chance you have of charging your EV en route.
So, in reverse order, here is our top 10:
10: M11 – 0.12 chargers per mile
Our 10th longest motorway, at 55 miles, the M11 is also 10th in our list when it comes to places to charge an EV. The problem for it in this survey is that it has just one service area – Birchanger Green near Bishop’s Stortford. While that has a relatively respectable 13 charging points, they can’t make up for the overall lack of places to top up a battery.
9: M3 – 0.15 chargers per mile
Anyone heading to the west country from London would be advised to get a full charge before they leave. Like the M11, the 58.6-mile M3 suffers from a lack of service areas – just two in this case. And neither of those is particularly well-served with charging points.
8: M8 – 0.23 chargers per mile
Running from Edinburgh to Glasgow on Scotland’s west coast, the 60.3-mile M8 is another motorway to only have one services (Harthill). But this has 16 ultra-rapid chargers. In addition, the M8 has a ChargePlace Scotland dedicated EV charging station. This has another eight 100-150kW ultra-rapid chargers.
On the road: if you’re heading to Scotland, the M8 corridor is well-equipped for charging
Credit: Getty
7: M1 – 0.30 chargers per mile
One of the surprises of this survey is that the country’s oldest and now its second-longest motorway didn’t finish higher in our chart. But, to be fair, seventh to second place is a very tight group. The stand-out services on the M1 is Woolley Edge in West Yorkshire, which has nine ultra-rapid chargers southbound and 13 on the northbound carriageway.
6: M25 – 0.32 chargers per mile
London’s orbital motorway is 117 miles long but has just four services on it. The result is that it’s come lower down in our survey than we expected. But two of its stops, Thurrock and South Mimms are very well served, with 18 and 12 ultra-rapid charging points respectively.
5: M5 – 0.33 chargers per mile
Running from Droitwich in the west midlands down to Exeter, the M5 is Britain’s fourth-longest motorway. If it was a lower-league football team, it would be just outside the automatic promotion places: better than many rivals but not quite good enough to warrant going up. The high point is Exeter services with 18 ultra-rapid points and 16 Tesla Superchargers.
Clocking up the miles: EV charging facilities are plentiful at Exeter services
Credit: Shutterstock
4: M4 – 0.39 chargers per mile
The M4 might link London with Wales but many of the chargers that help lift the M4 towards the top of this chart are close to the capital. Heston and Reading services, the two nearest London, boast a significant proportion of the motorway’s ultra-rapid charging capability. And between them, these two services have 70 of the motorway’s 147 chargers.
3: M62 – 0.40 chargers per mile
At 107 miles long, the M62 is our sixth-longest motorway but it’s punching above its weight in EV-charging terms. The reason for this is Tesla’s Supercharging network: a fraction more than half of the 86 charging points on this road are courtesy of the US EV specialist.
On the move: the M62 has Tesla to thank for over half its charging points along the 107 mile stretch
Credit: Shutterstock
2: M6 – 0.42 chargers per mile
At 232.2 miles, the M6 is Britain’s longest motorway. But it’s not quite our best when it comes to EV charging. Nonetheless, with 193 points, it quite fittingly has the most by total of any UK motorway. That said, the vast majority are 50kW – the slow end of rapid charging.
1: M40 – 0.61 chargers per mile
For many years, the M40 was criticised for not having enough services. And it still only has four along its 89-mile length. But that means there’s a charging point every other mile. However, those services are reasonably well equipped with ultra-rapid and rapid charging points. But be in no doubt: its position at the top is primarily down to more than half of its charging points being Tesla Superchargers.
Supercharging EV growth
E.ON wants to make it simple for electric car drivers to charge at home with its fast and intuitive chargers. Find out more at eonenergy.com
