The government has opened a £10 million competition aimed at solving one of the quieter bottlenecks in the UK’s transition to electric vehicles: the difficulty of installing ultra-rapid chargers in locations where the grid simply isn’t strong enough.
The funding, announced by the Department for Transport and the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles, is intended for the “hard-to-power” parts of England’s strategic road network - the motorway services and A-road sites where operators often face long waits or high costs for upgrades.
Grid limitations come into focus
The idea is straightforward enough. Rather than waiting for new substations, operators can develop systems that blend renewable generation with on-site storage to support high-power chargers. This isn’t new technology - several operators already use battery-buffered setups - but the government wants more of it in places where traditional connections aren’t viable.
To qualify, projects must support at least 12 ultra-rapid chargers capable of delivering the 120 to 145 miles of range many EVs can add in around 15 minutes. Whether the market can reliably hit that benchmark at grid-limited sites is exactly what this programme intends to test.
A charging network still expanding
The announcement follows new figures showing the UK has 86,021 public chargepoints, a 23% rise over the past year. Growth has been strongest in rural areas, including parts of Yorkshire, the North West, Wales and Scotland - a change that reflects operators filling out wider gaps in coverage rather than concentrating solely in cities.
Minister for Decarbonisation Keir Mather said the funding would “get more chargepoints on motorways and major A-roads,” and pointed to the Electric Car Grant as part of the wider effort to support adoption. The grant, launched over the summer, has been used by more than 25,000 drivers to access discounts of up to £3,750 on eligible models.
Home charging in the policy mix
Alongside the new fund, the government plans to consult on easing planning requirements for renters and people without driveways to install home chargers. The proposal would remove roughly £250 in planning fees, and is intended to make domestic charging accessible to a much broader portion of drivers - still a major gap in the UK’s EV landscape.
What Innovate UK will be looking for
The programme will be run by Innovate UK, which says it wants to test practical ways of bringing additional power to constrained sites on long-distance routes. Claire Spooner, Director of Mobility, said the competition would help build capability and improve how the sector handles charging for longer journeys, particularly outside major population centres.
Applications are open until 25 March 2026.
