The UK’s electric vehicle rollout – a cornerstone of the net-zero agenda – is facing the same structural constraint as power generation, housing and industry: the grid.
The government’s ambition is clear; the UK is targeting 300,000 public charge points by 2030, backed by funding through the Rapid Charging Fund, LEVI, and ongoing The Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate ZEV mandate obligations. Yet at the current pace, installations are running at around half the rate required to meet that target.
For large fleet operators – logistics firms, bus companies, local authorities and corporates – the pressure to electrify is intensifying. ZEZ, clean air zones, rising fuel costs, corporate sustainability commitments, and procurement rules are all pushing fleets towards electric alternatives. But grid constraints are increasingly holding back delivery on the ground.
A process under strain
Ofgem’s 2024 review labelled the EV connection process “complex, inconsistent, and opaque.” Connection timelines remain uncertain, costs volatile, and regional outcomes uneven.
Under TMO4+, however, a shift is underway. The move to a “first-ready, first-connected” principle should finally allow strategically important charging schemes – motorway service areas, fleet depots, bus garages, and local authority hubs – to leapfrog speculative projects that are unlikely to be delivered.
For fleets operating under regulatory deadlines and contractual commitments, this reform matters. In 2026, certainty over when power arrives is often more valuable than marginal differences in connection cost.
A deeply uneven rollout
Despite national targets, deployment remains geographically skewed. A 2024 National Audit Office report highlighted stark disparities:
- 44% of public charge points are located in London and the South East
- Just 15% serve rural England
Scotland continues to buck the trend, with 26.1 public charging devices per 100,000 people, compared to the UK average of 18.5.
What is clear is that without deliberate capacity allocation for underserved regions, the EV transition risks reinforcing regional inequality – an urban success story that bypasses the communities, supply chains and freight routes that need electrification most.
If EV charging is to underpin clean transport, it must be treated as critical national infrastructure – not simply a commercial convenience.
Driving change: Powering the fleet revolution
Public transport shows what is possible when funding, policy and infrastructure align.
The UK’s electrified bus fleets remain the standout success story in transport decarbonisation. In 2024, around 1,570 new battery or fuel-cell buses entered service – a 35% increase on 2023 – placing the UK among Europe’s leading zero-emission bus markets.
In England, 7.4% of local buses are now fully electric, up from 4.2% the previous year, with Coventry and London leading the transition. London’s fleet of nearly
Scotland is setting the regional pace through its £41.7 million ScotZEB 2 fund, supporting 252 new zero-emission buses and expanding national charging infrastructure for buses and HGVs.
Beyond buses, momentum slows
Outside public transport, progress becomes more uneven.
Electrifying vans and logistics fleets remains challenging, constrained by vehicle cost, range limitations, payload impacts, and patchy charging access. Even so, momentum is building: the UK’s electric commercial vehicle fleet grew 31% in 2024 to around 90,000 vehicles, driven largely by van adoption.
Operators continue to cite “edge case” challenges – range anxiety on longer routes, downtime during charging, and depot power availability – as barriers to scaling.
For heavy goods vehicles, electrification is still at an early stage. Just 217 zero-emission trucks were registered in 2024, down year-on-year, reflecting persistent technical and infrastructure hurdles: heavy batteries, high power demand, and the absence of a national heavy-duty charging network.
Yet ambition is rising. Amazon’s recent order of 140 electric trucks signals growing confidence and aligns with government-backed zero-emission HGV programmes and future ZEV extensions into heavier vehicle classes.
The real accelerator is the grid
The common constraint across all fleet segments is no longer vehicle availability – it is access to power.
The Gate 2 reform is therefore pivotal. For depots, charging hubs and freight corridors, these reforms promise faster, more transparent connections, with projects that meet readiness and strategic-fit criteria expected to secure confirmed connection dates by 2026.
That certainty unlocks investment. It allows fleets to place vehicle orders, commit to depot upgrades, and align charging rollout with operational cycles – rather than gambling on uncertain grid timelines.
Combined with tightening ZEV mandates, depot-electrification grants, clean air zone pressures, and corporate decarbonisation commitments, a streamlined grid connection process could finally push fleet electrification from pioneering projects into the mainstream.
This will however only be possible if charging infrastructure is recognised – in practice, not just policy – as essential national infrastructure. Without adequate, safe, affordable and sustainable power, even the strongest incentives cannot deliver electric mobility at scale.
