INTERVIEW longer than when you are filling a car with petrol . Sites like this provide a number of different amenities that people can utilise while charging , so it ' s not just a case of the time it takes to charge , but involves grabbing a coffee , checking your emails , using facilities , having a rest , even if you ' re on a long journey . So there are lots of other things that can be done while charging .
INTERVIEW longer than when you are filling a car with petrol . Sites like this provide a number of different amenities that people can utilise while charging , so it ' s not just a case of the time it takes to charge , but involves grabbing a coffee , checking your emails , using facilities , having a rest , even if you ' re on a long journey . So there are lots of other things that can be done while charging .
Plus , we ' ve got so much power here , and we can charge vehicles so quickly , that it becomes secondary to whatever it is that you are already doing here . We ' re trying to make sure that , across all of our sites , you ’ re not just charging but doing other meaningful things at the same time .
HOW HAVE PARTNERS SUPPORTED THE COMPANY ON THIS JOURNEY OF BUILDING EV FORECOURTS ?
There are hundreds of companies that we ' ve had to work with in order to deliver what we ' ve already produced . Whether it be the companies that we work with to procure the solar panels , the land for our sites , and then the battery storage and the arbitrage and the trading on the grid , the construction companies that assist in building these . There ' s a huge complex ecosystem required in the background . We ' re delighted at the progress that we ' ve made so far .
WHAT DEVELOPMENTS ARE TAKING PLACE AT THE MOMENT TO FURTHER THE GRIDSERVE NETWORK ?
So we procured that network in the summer of last year and , since then , we ' ve upgraded the entire network across the whole country to put in new chargers and facilitate charging for 85 % of the service stations in the UK . In addition to the forecourts , we ' re also building out those locations as well as more super hubs , which will house 6 to 12 high-powered DC chargers as well .
Our rollout is largely separated by three prongs . One is to continually upgrade the service station provisions while putting in more hubs at those sites , but also in additional sites , too , on top of building a number of forecourts .
The next one will be built at the South Terminal of Gatwick Airport next year , making it the first EV forecourt to be positioned inside an international airport . So we ' re very excited about getting that one off the ground as well .
EVMAGAZINE . COM [ Feb 2023 ] 19