Tuesday 8 March 2022

CMA announces more competition for EV charging

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced there will be more choice of electric vehicle (EV) charge points on motorways for drivers, after striking a deal with Gridserve.

Gridserve owns the Electric Highway – a huge charge point operator in the UK – and has agreed not to enforce exclusive rights to contracts with Extra, Moto and Roadchef after November 2026.

These stations currently occupy two-thirds of motorway services in Britain and the change will mean Gridserve reduces the length of these exclusivity contracts by around four years.

The move has been made to ensure fair competition across the EV infrastructure market, as it grows and has higher demand.

Ann Pope, CMA Senior Director of Antitrust, said: “We need a combination of investment now and healthy competition going forward to make sure chargepoints are installed at scale where people need them, for a fair price.

“Today’s commitments strike the right balance. Gridserve will continue to invest in the much-needed roll-out of chargepoints across the country but the exclusivity linked to its investment won’t be an undue barrier to others competing in the near future.”