The UK Now Has Its First EV-Only Charging Station

The UK now has its first charging station for electric vehicles only after Gridserve put into service on Sunday, the first of 100 planned such forecourts to support mass EV adoption in the country.

Gridserve and Hitachi Capital launched the first EV station in Braintree, Essex, in southeast England—the first of 100 electric forecourts that the companies will be developing across the UK over the next five years, Gridserve said in a statement this weekend.   

The UK government has just announced that under its green recovery plan and as part of the net-zero-by-2050 pledge, it would ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars from 2030.

The station in Essex can host 36 electric vehicles to be charged simultaneously, with high power chargers that can deliver up to 350 kW of charging power, enabling people to add 200 miles of range in 20 minutes, Gridserve said. Electricity at the station is generated from both the solar power canopies above the chargers, and a network of hybrid solar farms, also operated by Gridserve.

“Charging has to be simple and free of anxiety, which is why we’ve designed our Electric Forecourts® entirely around the needs of drivers, updating the traditional petrol station model for a net-zero carbon world and delivering the confidence people need to make the switch to electric transport today – a full decade ahead of the 2030 ban on petrol and diesel cars,” said Gridserve’s founder and CEO Toddington Harper.

EV sales in the UK have jumped this year despite a slump in the overall car market due to the lockdowns and the economic uncertainty in the pandemic.

While the UK’s total new car sales slumped in November due to the second lockdown, EVs recorded their third-highest ever monthly share of registrations at 9.1 percent, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said last week.

To compare, in November of 2019, the share of battery EVs of total new car registrations in the UK was just 3.0 percent.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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