A new report has suggested that how fast electric vehicles (EVs) can be ‘refuelled’ could undermine efforts to provide an adequate public chargepoint network. Click here to read the full story.

The latest battery-only cars need only five minutes at the quickest ‘rapid’ chargepoints to take on enough electricity to add about 15 miles of range.

However, because of the limitations of their on-board control units, it will take almost all plug-in hybrids an hour or so – or twelve times as long – to achieve a similar thing.

This mismatch means that expensive, high-specification equipment, which is essential to battery-only vehicles on long journeys, could be blocked by other, slower-charging vehicles.

The warning comes in a new report - Development of the UK Public Chargepoint Network - for the RAC Foundation by Harold Dermott. He argues that until plug-in hybrids have both a greater electric-only range and can accept electricity at a faster rate, chargepoints at motorway service areas should be reserved solely for battery-only cars.