Electric car owners issued dire warning by motorway services boss as he warns of ‘major problem’
CHARGING points for electric vehicles are sitting there with no power due to a lack of capacity, a motorway services boss says.
Ken McMeikan, CEO of Moto Hospitality, said the issue is a “major major problem” across the UK, leaving drivers unable to use them.
And he warned unless power firms provide enough energy to recharge points – Britain will never hit its 2030 all-electric vehicle target.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Mr McMeikan said: “We’ve put sufficient chargers on four of our motorway service areas and the power required once the chargers were put in place is not available.
“So EV drivers are turning up to motorway services at four of our locations and there are chargers sitting there but no power.
“Getting enough power for those chargers to actually operate well enough for EV drivers is a major major problem.”
The Government hope that by the end of 2023, every motorway service area in Britain will have at least six charge points.
It is part of their pledged to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 to encourage Brits to switch to electric vehicles.
Mr McMeikan said that by then, around one in four or one in three motorists would be arriving at service stations in an electric vehicle.
But while targets for more charging points are set, there are no targets for the amount of power that will be reaching them.
Mr McMeikan says this is a major problem as he reckons the grid will need to be sending 12 times more power to charge points than what it is today.
And he warned this is unlikely to be achieved in seven years.
He explained: “I don’t believe the grid at the moment has the infrastructure and the power available at the time that it’s going to be needed.
“What the government needs to do is they need to set targets on a year by year basis, side by side, region by region, to ensure that there is sufficient power to be able to operate the chargers.”
His comments come as The Sun launched Give Us A Brake campaign – as it emerged Britain’s creaking power grid cannot cope with charging electric cars.
So far, 24 MPs and six peers have joined our demand to end the war on motorists and delay the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars.
As of July 1, 2023, there were 44,020 public electric vehicle charging devices installed in the UK.
That comes to around 65.7 devices per 100,000 people.