Roadchef operates 21 service stations on the motorway network here in the UK and the company is just about to receive a huge amount of investment for brand new EV charging infrastructure.

Macquarie, an investment banking specialist from Sydney, will be investing £20 billion in various projects in the UK, such as ultra-fast full fibre, wireless broadband for rural communities, new homes and more. Roadchef will be receiving a portion of this investment, which will be spent on building around 650 new fast charging stations at the sites that Roadchef have.

“The upgrade of Roadchef sites is our latest in a long line of investments in UK infrastructure, and we have plans to invest more. We believe that infrastructure investment helps create strong foundations for economic growth, job creation, better services for the public and stronger communities. We are fully invested in the UK’s success and look forward to playing our part in delivering the investment the country needs.”

Shemara Wikramanayake - Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Macquarie Group

In addition to new chargers for passenger vehicles, two of the sites will have charging provision installed for HGVs, something that is going to be become more of a necessity in years to come. In addition, 100 additional parking spaces for electric trucks are to be added.

Many of the Roadchef sites in the UK have existing infrastructure for EV chargers, but are either outdated, slow or simply just not enough at them.

The investment will also be spent on new offshore wind developments, 5GW in total - and these will be located near the Orkney and Lincolnshire coasts.

We also reached out to Macquarie for more information about what CPOs are going to be used;

"On background, we aren’t in a position to disclose [what CPOs are going to be used] yet. Currently it is principally GRIDSERVE and soon Shell EV chargers will be added to some of their forecourts on Roadchef MSAs."

Patrick Gallagher - Head of Media and External Communications, Macquarie

Our take

The UK motorway network has sections that are well served by certain CPOs, but many are neglected. For example, most of the M5 going south from Birmingham has had very poor EV charging infrastructure and its only in the last year or so that some CPOs, namely Tesla have added provisions for its superchargers and are thankfully, open to all EVs. Frankley services Southbound and Gloucester Services (both sides) now have Tesla V4 chargers and according to Tesla UK, Frankley services Northbound is under construction.

But overall, this is great - the UK motorway network really needs more chargers and the more we have, the more confident new EV buyers will be.

Update: 16/10/24 12:44 PM BST - Added CPO quote from Macquarie

Source: Macquarie