THE first of 10 fast-chargers for electric cars has been installed at Fleet Services on the M3.

The Electric Highway fast-charger will allow electric vehicles to re-fuel in 20 to 30 minutes.

The charger was installed by green energy company Ecotricity, which is working with Nissan.

Founder, Dale Vince, said: “The growth of the Electric Highway across British motorways has just kicked into overdrive. We’ve added 20 fast-chargers in the last month alone and will continue at this rate until April next year.”

He added that the three perceived barriers to the growth of electric vehicles – price, travel range and re-charging times – were being overcome, and said: “The first of these barriers, price, is being resolved by motor industry competition, which has forced down new car prices by as much as 35 per cent over the past two years.

“The second and third barriers are really one and the same – concern over the distance that an electric car will travel on a single charge – called range anxiety. This is being overcome by installing fast-charging infrastructure in the right locations.”

The Electric Highway now has 26 fast-chargers at motorway service stops, linking London to Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Cardiff and Leeds.

Paul O’Neil, Electric Vehicle manager, Nissan Motor GB, said: “Nissan trail-blazed the electric vehicle market with the introduction of the Nissan LEAF and now we are doing the same with the UK’s fast-charging network. Working alongside Ecotricity and other partners, including our dealer network, Nissan is on course to hit our target of 150 publicly accessible charging units by April 2014.”

Motorists driving a typical 8,500 miles per year would save £1,000 in fuel costs at today’s prices if using an electric car, and also save around 2,000kg in CO2 emissions.

As reported in The Gazette, the Government has given funds of £315,000 to Hampshire County Council to install a network of electric car charging points in Hampshire, including at the Little Chef in Popham.