A proposed £190m government scheme to increase electricity capacity for electric vehicle charging at motorway service areas has entered formal subsidy-control scrutiny before ministers decide whether to proceed with the programme.
The Competition and Markets Authority’s Subsidy Advice Unit has accepted a referral from the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles covering the proposed Strategic Charging Infrastructure Scheme.
The referral is not an investigation into wrongdoing and does not represent approval or rejection of the programme. The unit will assess the Government’s own analysis of whether the proposed subsidy complies with UK subsidy-control requirements and publish its report by 4 November.
The scheme has an indicative allocation of £190m from the £400m announced at the 2025 Spending Review for electric vehicle charging infrastructure between 2026 and 2030.
Its focus is motorway service areas in England where electricity network capacity is insufficient to support the expected expansion of high-powered, open-access charging and where the cost of securing additional capacity is considered commercially prohibitive.
Under the proposed model, the Government would commission electricity-network upgrades at selected sites and reserve the resulting capacity for motorway service area operators or charge point operators.
Those businesses would then apply to the relevant connection provider to access the reserved capacity. Payment would include a “second comer charge”, with part of that charge waived by the Government in an attempt to bring the connection cost to a commercially viable level.
The infrastructure would be available to operators providing open-access charging that can be used by any electric vehicle rather than proprietary networks restricted to a particular manufacturer.
The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles intends the upgrades to meet projected charging demand at selected motorway sites until at least 2035 and, in some cases, as far ahead as 2050.
The intervention addresses one of the less visible constraints on rapid-charging expansion. Installing charging points at a motorway service area requires more than physical space, hardware, and planning permission. High-power chargers can create substantial electricity demand, meaning some sites need costly upgrades to substations, cables, or other distribution infrastructure before additional chargers can operate.
Where network connection costs are high relative to expected charging revenue, private operators may struggle to justify investment even where future demand is expected to rise. Important transport corridors can therefore remain constrained until utilisation grows enough to improve the commercial case.
The proposed scheme is intended to bring forward infrastructure that might otherwise arrive later through purely commercial investment. That creates a subsidy-control question over whether public support is proportionate, properly targeted, and structured in a way that limits unnecessary distortion of competition.
The Subsidy Advice Unit does not decide whether a public authority can award a subsidy. It evaluates assessments for larger or particularly sensitive schemes and provides non-binding advice on compliance with the statutory framework.
The Strategic Charging Infrastructure Scheme has been designated a Scheme of Particular Interest, triggering the referral process. Third parties have until 7 October to submit information relevant to the unit’s assessment.
The review comes as charging infrastructure becomes increasingly important to the UK’s transition to electric vehicles. Public charger numbers have grown, but location, power output, reliability, and grid connection remain as important as the overall number of devices installed.
Motorway service areas occupy a particularly important position because drivers undertaking longer journeys need rapid charging at predictable intervals. Demand can also concentrate around peak travel periods, increasing the amount of electrical infrastructure needed to support reliable service.
For charging operators, network capacity is one of several capital constraints. Businesses must fund chargers, civil works, payment systems, maintenance, site agreements, and connections before utilisation reaches mature levels. Expensive grid upgrades can materially alter the economics of individual locations.
Electricity networks face a different timing problem. Capacity investments are designed around projected demand over many years, while the speed and location of electric vehicle adoption can change more quickly. Building too little creates bottlenecks; investing too early or in the wrong locations can leave assets underused.
The proposed public support seeks to bridge that timing gap at selected service areas rather than finance the entire national charging network. Its final scale will also be constrained by the £190m indicative budget.
The Government consulted on the scheme during June and July, with those responses feeding into the design now under review.
The next formal milestone is the Subsidy Advice Unit’s report on 4 November. Its findings will inform the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles as it decides whether to proceed, modify the scheme, or address weaknesses identified in the subsidy assessment before committing public funds.
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