The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has agreed legally binding commitments with charger provider Gridserve, aimed at incentivising investment in EV infrastructure and promoting competition.
The industry watchdog launched an investigation last July into the Electric Highway network – acquired from Ecotricity by Gridserve two months previously – over concerns about the company's devices dominating the British motorway network.
Excluding Tesla Superchargers, Electric Highway was found to operate some 80% of motorway chargers in Britain, with long-term (10-15-year) exclusivity agreements in place at two thirds of the network's service stations.
The investigation aimed to determine whether these agreements with service station operators Moto Hospitality, Roadchef and Extra MSA were in breach of the Competition Act 1998.
The CMA said that by preventing the installation of devices from rival firms, the contracts were depriving EV drivers of the "benefits of competition", namely more devices, more competitive pricing and boosted reliability.
At the time, the CMA said that charging an EV should be "as simple as filling up with petrol or diesel".
Now Gridserve has agreed that it won't enforce exclusive rights with those three station operators from November 2026. It will also reduce its exclusivity agreement with Moto by two years and with Roadchef by four years. Its agreement with Extra is due to end in 2026 anyway.
It has also agreed, in the shorter term, that it won't enforce its exclusivity rights in the event that a rival firm secures government funding via the Rapid Charging Fund (RCF) to install charger devices at one of its locations. The three service-station providers have agreed "not to take any action that would undermine these commitments", according to the CMA.
The CMA says these agreements will allow for the RCF to be rolled out as planned, thereby providing more fast chargers from more companies.
The RCF, which will take the form of a one-time lump sum investment in 2023, is expected to only be available at locations with more than one charger provider.
Gridserve said: "We immediately understood why concerns had been raised, as upgrading the EV charging infrastructure at motorway locations is an essential part of the public charging mix and of particular importance to providing the confidence for new motorists to make the transition to electric vehicles.
"In order to retain our focus on delivering the necessary charging infrastructure, Gridserve pursued a path towards settlement with the CMA at a very early stage in proceedings, which we're pleased has now been completed.
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