⚡ World EV Day 2026: free electricity, and a bigger ultra-rapid network
RAW Charging gave away charging at more than 400 UK destinations on 9 September, while Motor Fuel Group passed 1,450 ultra-rapid chargers. Here is what the numbers actually say about Britain's charging network.
London, 10 September 2026 — Britain's charge point operators used World EV Day to make a simple point: the network is getting bigger, faster and — for one day at least — free.
On Wednesday 9 September, RAW Charging threw open its entire national AC network, plus a selection of rapid and ultra-rapid hubs, at no cost to drivers. The same week, Motor Fuel Group (MFG) — the UK's largest independent forecourt operator — confirmed it has added 243 new ultra-rapid charging bays so far in 2026, taking its total network past 1,450 ultra-rapid chargers.
Both announcements landed on World EV Day, the industry's annual showcase for electric driving, and both were framed around the same headline statistics: more than 2.15 million fully electric cars now on UK roads, and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) accounting for over a quarter of new car registrations across the first seven months of 2026, with a record 30% market share in June.
Free charging at more than 400 destinations
RAW Charging's offer ran from 12:01am to 11:59pm on 9 September and covered more than 400 destinations, including chargers up to 22kW on its AC network and selected DC sites delivering up to 300kW. Crucially, there was no app, account or RFID card required: drivers plugged in and tapped a contactless bank card to authorise the session — the "tap and charge" model RAW has been campaigning to make the default for public charging.
Free AC charging was available at sites run with the National Trust, Merlin Entertainments, the Royal Horticultural Society, Greene King and McArthurGlen, as well as across Landsec retail destinations. On the rapid side, participating DC sites included Ravenside Retail Park in Chesterfield, St George's Retail Park in Leicester, the Aberdeen RAW Rapid Hub, plus seven Greene King pubs and locations in Sidcup, Boston, Dudley, Peterborough and Stoke-on-Trent.
"World EV Day is a chance to celebrate how far the UK has come with electric vehicles," RAW Charging chief executive Jason Simpson said, adding that tap-and-charge access without an app or account is how public charging should work all year round — not just for one day.
It is worth keeping expectations in check, though. Free public charging in the UK remains genuinely rare: roughly 1,800 of the country's 120,000-plus public chargers are free to use — about 2% — and most of those are slow chargers at hotels, attractions and dealerships rather than rapid units on a motorway. Promotional days like this one are a nice bonus, not a charging strategy. If you are planning journeys around cost, our charging cost calculator and our guide to EV charging versus petrol costs will give you a more realistic picture.
MFG passes 1,450 ultra-rapid chargers
MFG's milestone is the more consequential one for long-distance drivers. The forecourt group has opened 243 new ultra-rapid charging bays across 39 sites during 2026, bringing its total to more than 1,450 ultra-rapid chargers. MFG says that represents more than 10% of the UK's entire rapid and ultra-rapid charging infrastructure.
The bays deliver power at 150kW, 300kW and up to 400kW, which MFG says can add up to 100 miles of range in about 10 minutes. They are installed at nearly 300 Morrisons supermarkets, with food and drink operators including Greggs, Pret A Manger, Burger King, Subway and Costa on site — the "charge while you shop" model that has become the dominant format for destination charging in the UK.
MFG estimates its network has powered more than 250 million electric miles so far this year and says it is investing more than £400 million in EV charging, with a target of more than 3,000 ultra-rapid chargers across 500 sites by 2030. The company also says it cut charging prices for drivers over the summer — a rare piece of good news given that public rapid charging still costs several times more per mile than charging at home.
The wider picture: 121,171 chargers and counting
Set against Zapmap's latest published figures, the direction of travel is clear. At the end of June 2026, the UK had 121,171 public EV chargers across 46,731 locations — a 10% year-on-year increase — of which 28,887 were rapid or ultra-rapid units rated at 50kW or above. That works out at roughly one public charger for every 17 battery electric cars on the road.
The growth is being driven by three different markets at once: en-route hubs on motorways and A-roads, destination sites at retail parks and supermarkets, and a much slower on-street rollout for the roughly 40% of UK households with nowhere private to plug in. That last category is where the real gap sits — and where the interesting policy money is flowing. We covered the options for driveway-less drivers in detail in our guide to charging an EV without a driveway.
What it means for UK drivers
Three practical takeaways:
1. Ultra-rapid coverage is no longer the bottleneck. With MFG, InstaVolt, Gridserve, Ionity and others all expanding at 150kW-plus, most motorway corridors now have usable options. The bigger issue is reliability — and the UK's charging networks are legally required to hit a 99% average reliability standard. Fewer than one in 25 currently meet it, which we unpacked in our guide to the UK's 99% charger reliability law, including how to claim a refund when a charger fails.
2. Check before you rely on it. Promotional free charging days are announced at short notice and are usually limited to AC posts. Use a live status map such as our UK charging points directory to find chargers on your route and check their power rating before setting off.
3. Factor charging into your car choice. If you cannot charge at home, an EV with a smaller battery and a faster DC charging curve will often be cheaper to run than a long-range model that you have to rapid-charge anyway. Compare real-world specs across our electric car library or run the numbers on two cars side by side with the car comparison tool.
Sources
RAW Charging — Free EV Charging Across More Than 400 UK Locations for World EV Day (https://rawcharging.com/news/article/free-ev-charging-across-more-than-400-uk-locations-for-world-ev-day) · Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology — UK charging operators mark World EV Day with expansion and free charging (https://www.electrichybridvehicletechnology.com/news/uk-charging-operators-mark-world-ev-day-with-expansion-and-free-charging.html) · Zapmap — H1 2026 UK EV charging infrastructure statistics (https://www.zapmap.com/news/h1-2026-uk-ev-charging-infrastructure-statistics) · Business Motoring — RAW offers free charging at 400 sites for World EV Day (https://businessmotoring.co.uk/raw-offers-free-charging-at-400-sites-for-world-ev-day/) · SMMT / Zapmap figures as cited by the operators above.
