The UK Government has announced a £400m investment to increase the number of rapid charging points across the country to encourage the take-up of electric vehicles.

The £400m is part of a wider £500m scheme which will focus on implementing green technologies across the UK with the first £70m earmarked for the creation of 3,000 new rapid charging points.

The move was announced by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, with the aim of doubling the number of EV charging points across the UK over the next five years.

Shapps said: “It’s fantastic there’s already a rapid charging point at almost every motorway service station, and now more charging stations than petrol stations. But I want to see thousands more charging points installed across the UK.

“This fund will help drum up further investment in charging infrastructure from the private sector, so charging an electric car becomes as easy as plugging in a smartphone.”

Earlier this week, Shapps told The Sunday Times that although subsidies for electric car purchases remain in place for now, he urged those wanting to take advantage to do so sooner rather than later. The Government will provide a grant of up to £3,500 for those wanting to buy a new electric or plug-in hybrid car, but that incentive won’t last forever.

“I make no bones about it,” Shapps told the Sunday Times. “We want to remove all the subsidy. So you can see this in two ways. If you are out there reading this, thinking of buying an electric car, buy it while the subsidy’s there, because it will go eventually,” adding that he couldn’t promise “lots of extra public bungs of taxpayers’ cash so you can buy your new car.”

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