New Electric Forecourts from Gridserve – up to 500kW electric car charging

Gridserve are building 100 Electric Forecourts in the UK offering up to 500kW charging from solar power and at sensible prices.

The whole electric car charging network in the UK is growing, and is more usable than ever, but although proper rapid charging is on the way from firms like Ionity, the vast majority of charging points still don’t offer more than 7kW charge rates and they don’t always work when you turn up with 10 per cent charge left and sweat beads starting to form

But UK Solar Company Gridserve has plans to address that, and is building 100 Electric Forecourts round the UK, powered by solar farms and with big battery banks to allow charging of up to 24 vehicles at a time and at rates – when electric cars can cope with it – of up to 500kW.

Each electric forecourt will have separate zones for electric cars and fleet/commercial vehicles and will have all the facilities you’d expect for a quick stop, like airport-style lounges with WiFi, coffee shop, fresh food and more.

Each site will be supported by new solar farms and multi-megawatt batteries to deliver sustainable charge rates even when all 24 bays are in use, and it looks like the target price for charging is a reasonable 20p per kWh.

Toddington Harper, Gridserve boss, said:

We plan to make charging electric vehicles as easy as using petrol stations. The latest generation of electric vehicles are awesome, and ready for mainstream adoption, but drivers still worry about if or where they can charge, how long it will take, and what it will cost. We plan to eliminate any range or charging anxiety by building a UK-wide network of customer-focussed, brand new Electric Forecourts® that will make it easier and cheaper to use an electric vehicle than a petrol or diesel alternative.

Gridserve has secured 80 of the 100 sites already, and plan to start the first sites – in Hull and York – later this year, with the full roll-out complete in five years.

Now all we need is to see car makers delivering electric cars capable of charging at 500kW, and you’ll be able to charge even a 100kWh EV with 80 per cent in 10 minutes.