The Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced a £400 million fund to develop an electric-car charging infrastructure across the UK, as part of a push towards electric and autonomous vehicles.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said: “Our future vehicles will be driverless, but they will be electric first.” He also announced an extra £100 million for the Plug-in Car Grant, which subsidises purchases of electric and hybrid vehicles, plus £40 million to go towards charging research.

The support for driverless cars was welcomed by Graeme Smith, chief executive of Oxbotica and leader of the ‘Driven’ consortium, which is developing the technology.

“This support shows the Government is still serious about making the UK the place to develop autonomous-vehicle technology.

“The research being undertaken by us here at Oxbotica and leveraged in our self-driving road trials within Driven would not be possible without funding from central Government.”