CMA Subsidy Advice Unit Publishes Final Report on OZEV's £190m EV Charging Scheme, Identifying Gaps in Additionality and Competition Assessment

On 4 November 2026, the Competition and Markets Authority's Subsidy Advice Unit (SAU) published its final report evaluating the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV)'s proposed Strategic Charging Infrastructure Scheme. The scheme, which carries an indicative allocation of £190 million drawn from the £400 million announced at Spending Review 2025, aims to expand open-access electric vehicle (EV) charging at Motorway Service Areas (MSAs) across England by funding electricity network upgrades at selected sites. The SAU's evaluation was conducted under section 52 of the Subsidy Control Act 2022 and applies the four-step framework set out in the statutory guidance for the UK subsidy control regime. The report provides non-binding advice to OZEV and does not itself determine whether the scheme may proceed. While the SAU acknowledged that OZEV had clearly evidenced the scheme's policy objective and carried out a comprehensive balancing test, it identified several areas requiring improvement. Specifically, the SAU found the Assessment should better identify the most likely counterfactual outcome for targeted sites, distinguishing delayed from permanently absent investment. It also asked OZEV to provide more evidence on additionality (whether the subsidy genuinely changes investment decisions) and to consider further design choices that could limit competition distortions, including impacts on non-MSA charge point operators and on-site competition between charge point operators. The report noted that some design features, including the size of the subsidy awarded and the reservation period for capacity (currently planned at between three and five years), remain unfinished, limiting the Assessment's ability to reach definitive conclusions on compliance with certain subsidy control principles.