Referral of the proposed Strategic Charging Infrastructure Scheme by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles

24 September 2026: The SAU has accepted a request for a report from OZEV concerning the proposed Strategic Charging Infrastructure Scheme. This request relates to a Scheme of Particular Interest.

The SAU will prepare a report, which will provide an evaluation of OZEV’s assessment of whether the scheme complies with the subsidy control requirements (Assessment of Compliance). The SAU will complete its report within 30 working days.

Information about the scheme provided by OZEV

The Strategic Charging Infrastructure Scheme is a proposed scheme by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV). An indicative allocation of £190 million has been made available for the scheme from the £400 million announced at Spending Review 2025 to support electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure between 2026 and 2030.

The proposed scheme aims to support the expansion of open-access EV charging at Motorway Service Areas (MSAs) by addressing the lack of affordable electricity network capacity at some MSAs. Under the scheme, the Government will commission electricity network upgrades at selected MSA sites and then reserve the resulting electricity capacity for MSA operators or charge point operators. These firms will be able to access the reserved capacity by applying directly to the relevant connection provider. Payment for capacity will be via a ‘second comer charge’, which will be partially waived by Government to bring the price to a commercially viable level.

The geographical scope of the scheme is England only. The intended beneficiaries are MSA operators and charge point operators seeking to deploy open-access EV charging infrastructure which can be used with any EV. The scheme will focus on MSA sites where the gap between current and future capacity is greatest and the costs of upgrading the network are not commercially viable.