Tuesday 23 January 2024

Plan to cut EV charging times to five minutes revealed

In a bid to address the rising issue of queues at electric car charging stations, Gridserve, the operator of charge points at major service stations, has unveiled a substantial £1 billion plan.

The initiative aims to deploy over 1,000 ultra rapid plug-in points capable of charging electric vehicles in just five minutes, significantly reducing waiting times for drivers.

Toddington Harper, Chief Executive Officer of Gridserve, noted the remarkable growth in funding for charging infrastructure, indicating a tenfold expansion since the beginning of 2023 when only 124 chargers were in operation.

Mr Harper expressed confidence in Gridserve's ability to make queues at service and charging stations a thing of the past.

Toddington Harper told The Times: "A few years ago it was very difficult to raise funding for charging infrastructure. Instead of people worrying about queuing, people worried: ‘Is anybody actually going to turn up? Are electric cars going to be a thing?’

"Queues have given the finance community the confidence to raise the money to make queues a thing of the past."