The organisation’s analysis shows that 70 service stations on England’s motorway network now have electric vehicle charge points – equating to 72% of the total of 97 service stations.

As a result, an electric vehicle driver will now be no more than 20 miles from a service station charge point on 98% of the motorway system in England.

And across the whole of the Strategic Road Network managed by Highways England – which also includes major A-roads – 82% (3,845 miles out of 4,668 miles) of the system is within 20 miles of a charge point.

The roll out of the charging infrastructure means that Highways England is getting close to the £15m promise made in the 2014 Autumn Statement that electric car drivers would never be “more than 20 miles from a charge point on the Strategic Road Network”.

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “Electric car drivers might still struggle to drive from Land’s End to John o’ Groats but they can now travel from Southampton to Perth in a relatively straight line and be confident of being able to ‘fill up’ along the way. 

“The growing charge point network is good news but there are important caveats. 

“Though many of the charge points are rapid, it will still take about 30 minutes to fully replenish a battery. This is fine if you’re first in the queue but could be a challenge if the hoped-for take up of electric cars materialises and you’re stuck at the back of a very long line.”

He added: “Drivers need to know the charge point they intend to use is actually working. Previous research by the RAC Foundation suggested that at any one time a third of charge points in London were out of action.”