A PONTARDDULAIS service station has been named as one of the worst in the UK, according to new research.

Pont Abraham service station was ranked as number two in the list of worst UK service stations by DriveElectric.

The company looked at the provision of support for electric vehicles (EV) including the number of charging facilities, the average cost of charging a vehicle and then the number of shops and food facilities as well as others.

Pont Abraham, on the M4, came in second worst behind Bothwell (southbound), with only a 0.07 difference in the EV service station score.

Both Bothwell and Pont Abraham have just one EV charger and an average charging cost of 69p and according to the research, they both have a review rating of three out of five. However, DriveElectric gave Bothwell a 0.52 score out of 10, with Pont Abraham getting a 0.59 score out of 10.

DriveElectric said the score came as Pont Abraham had one EV charger, no ultra-rapid chargers and no hotels, which is exactly the same as Bothwell, but Pont Abraham scores slightly better because it has five eateries including McDonald’s and Starbucks on the Go, compared to Bothwell’s three.

The study only analysed service stations with at least one EV charger, so there is some good news for Pont Abraham as if those that have no EV chargers were included (and there are some, as the study mentions Lisburn and Leicester Forest East which both have no chargers) then it would rank higher.

DriveElectric compiled the list of services with EV chargers from Motorway Services Online.

The data is accurate as of June 5, 2023, when the survey of each station was carried out using ZapMap for the number of charging points and cost.

The number of eateries was compiled using Motorway Services Online data. To calculate the EV service station score, they gave each station a score out of 10 for each factor and each factor was given an equal weighting.

The average score for each station was then calculated.