Rapid charging at UK motorway services has improved enormously, with more high-power chargers at more locations than ever. A long motorway journey in an EV is now genuinely easy, as long as you charge at the right places and keep the stops short. The trick is to treat the motorway services, not the towns, as your charging points.
Why the services beat the towns
It is tempting to leave the motorway and charge in a nearby town, but it costs you dearly in time. Town chargers are often slower AC units, and the detour off and back onto the motorway easily adds 15 to 30 minutes each way. The rapid hubs at the services, by contrast, sit right on your route and deliver far more power.
Aim for the high-power hubs
Look for chargers of 150 kW and up at the larger services. They are quick to reach and leave, so your break stays short, and the bigger sites have many stalls, so you rarely have to queue. A single 20 to 30 minute stop, from about 10 to 80 percent, is usually enough on most legs.
Plan around your pace and the weather
At motorway speeds range drops noticeably, and more so in wind, rain or cold. Add a stop in good time rather than running the battery close to empty. A car that arrives at the charger with 10 to 20 percent left also charges fastest.
Avoid the Friday queues
Queues build most on Friday afternoons and in holiday traffic. Choose the large hubs with many chargers over a single unit at a small services, and there is almost always one free. On FindCharger you can see the number of charge points at each site before you drive there.
Zoom into your route on the charging map and filter by power to see the strongest chargers along the way, so you can choose your stop before you set off.