England revisits motorway charging after a pilot awarded no grants

For a driver pulling into a motorway service area, the purpose is straightforward: find a free bay, connect the cable, understand the price and get enough charge to continue.

Behind that ordinary stop lies a more difficult infrastructure problem. A £70 million pilot for motorway grid upgrades in England ended with every applicant withdrawing and no grants awarded. The £70 million was the available fund; the documents reviewed here do not establish the cost of administering it. Independent pilot evaluation

Government now has a specific delivery problem to learn from. Its proposed successor would place responsibility for the connection with different organisations.

A workable funding agreement would be an important start. The longer test is whether it leads to the bay, cable, price and service the driver needs.

Put responsibility within reach

The Rapid Charging Fund pilot opened in December 2023 to support grid upgrades and learn how to deliver them. In the process evaluation published on 8 September, motorway service-area operators described repayment and cost-overrun risks they were unwilling to accept. Network delays could leave them exposed to consequences they could not control. Independent pilot evaluation

By June 2026, the government had opened a consultation on a successor, the Strategic Charging Infrastructure scheme. An indicative £190 million would support contracts with connection providers, reserved capacity and subsidised access for charging businesses. The chargers themselves would be provided by private firms.

This would bring responsibility closer to control of the work. Whether it is enough will become clearer when providers decide to participate and connections are completed. Government's successor proposal

What happens to choice?

A separate change concerns competition. The pilot required at least two open-access charging operators at funded sites. The proposed successor would omit an equivalent condition. Pilot evaluation

The condition had a reason. The Competition and Markets Authority had warned that subsidised grid upgrades could reinforce existing market power unless competing businesses could enter motorway sites. Drivers might gain more chargers while still relying on a single provider. CMA charging market study

The government argues that expiring exclusivity arrangements, increasing competition and CMA oversight now make the condition unnecessary. It also proposes competition for eligible work on the connections. Successor proposal

Some of that change was still ahead at the time of writing. Gridserve's commitment concerning specified exclusivity rights at Extra, Moto and Roadchef takes effect after November 2026. CMA announcement, March 2022

Earlier advice adds a useful caution. In its 2023 review of the pilot, the CMA's Subsidy Advice Unit warned against relying on later enforcement to protect against distortions of competition. That advice addressed the old scheme, rather than assessing the new proposal. Subsidy Advice Unit report, paragraph 2.8(a)

Two different markets are involved. Competition to build a grid connection may help government obtain value for money. Competition to sell charging may give drivers more choice. A charger that accepts every car brand does not necessarily give another business access to the site or its power supply.

Requiring two operators at every site could also create problems. Limited space or weak demand might make a second business unviable and delay additional charging. That is a design risk to examine, rather than an effect the pilot has established.

The evidence will be in the terms of access and what follows: who applies, who receives capacity, and what drivers pay for a reliable service. Open entry without a funding condition would support the government's approach. Preferential access for an incumbent would make a timely route to correction important.

Follow the connection to the driver

Once the grid connection is finished, the work of providing a usable service continues.

A business must install and maintain the equipment. A driver must be able to reach it, handle the cable and pay. Success at one step leaves the next step to be checked.

Nigel Melly's account in a September 2025 Transport Focus report makes this concrete. The disabled EV driver described planning around familiar motorway sites and choosing an end bay with room to enter and leave his car. He also recommended electric driving. His experience predates the proposal, but shows how knowledge and workarounds can determine whether a listed charging bay is usable. Transport Focus report, page 14

In evidence to Parliament in January 2026, Motability Operations called for accessibility requirements on publicly funded charging infrastructure. It also described the expense faced by disabled customers dependent on public charging. Access and price meet in the journeys a person can realistically make. Motability Operations evidence

Accessibility already has a place in policy. The DfT circular cited by the consultation says chargepoints should be accessible and asks providers to consider PAS 1899. The consultation adds no separate accessibility test for allocating grid capacity. Following an upgrade through to the charging site would show how those expectations are met and how barriers are corrected. DfT Circular 01/2022, paragraphs 110–111

Capacity also needs to be judged over time. Building ahead can avoid repeated upgrades; low initial use may be an intentional reserve. Each site's scale, timing and alternatives need an explanation. Under the proposal, unused capacity would return to the wider market after the reservation period, with the practical terms still to be tested. Successor proposal

Organisations involved in design and delivery supplied evidence to the pilot evaluation. Published driver experiences add another view of the service. They can inform the questions asked of the successor without being presented as new reactions to it.

Make learning visible

The evaluation describes gains in expertise, relationships and demand planning. Those lessons become tangible when they change a contract, remove a delay or help a service work for its users.

A public record could follow each selected site from agreement to connection and then to operating chargers. It could explain delays and exclusions, show whether subsidy brought forward investment, and record reliability, accessibility and prices.

That would let the public assess both the building work and the service it made possible.

On 14 September, the consultation page still showed a proposal and no government response. The scheme's results remain ahead. Its design gives us a defined change to follow. SCI consultation page

A pilot that awarded no grants could still help the next programme succeed. The useful lesson would travel through the agreements between government, network providers and charging businesses until it reached the driver: a place to stop, a charger they can use and an easier journey onward.

This analysis draws on published documents and previously reported experiences. Experimental Newsroom conducted no new interviews for this article. Sources were checked on 14 September 2026.