E.ON and a German highway service station firm have teamed up to make it easier to drive an electric vehicle (EV) across the country.

The energy giant’s collaboration with Tank & Rast aims to upgrade existing EV charging infrastructure to ultra-fast models along the autobahn between Flensburg and Munich.

More than 90 motorway service stations will have the existing 50kw charging columns replaced with 150kw devices, allowing most electric cars to be fully recharged in around 20 minutes.

The columns currently installed take around half an hour to charge an average battery to around 80%.

E.ON says the new equipment will be future-proof, with the capacity to be upgraded again to 350kw once the technology is ready to be commercially deployed.

CEO of E.ON, Karsten Wildberger, said: “Only if the charging of tomorrow is almost as fast as it currently is to fill up with petrol will e-mobility prevail in long distances. And that’s precisely what we’re working on.”