Ecotricity is set to begin charging customers using its ‘Electric Highway’ car charging network.

A rapid charge of up to twenty minutes will cost £5 for users who are not Ecotricity domestic energy customers.

All Electric Highway members will have to download a new mobile phone app to make payments, which will also provide details of the location and availability of their nearest pump. There are 296 chargers, of which 276 are rapid chargers, across Britain.

Ecotricity said network usage trebled in 2015 and “it is now necessary to start charging for the service in order to maintain and grow the network.” It said the switch to charging will be manually implemented at charging points between 11 July and  5 August.

In its busiest month, May 2016, the Electric Highway provided 347.3MWh of electricity through 43,211 separate charges.