Stockport Borough Council has received its first electric vehicle (EV) charging hub from UK EV charging network Be.EV as part of ongoing £15 million deal.
Stationed at Romiley Precinct, the location is equipped with four charging bays – two ultra-rapid, one rapid and one fast with the ultra-rapid chargers capable of adding around 125 miles of range in a 15-minute stop.
The Romiley site will be the first of 20 installations that Be.EV agreed to deliver as part of its deal with Stockport Borough Council from March 2023.
It is located 10 minutes from the M60, which sees an average of more than 83,000 vehicles a day, and Stockport itself has close to 2,700 registered EVs.
As the EV charging network, Be.EV funded all up-front installation and operating costs for the hub, as well as managed the design, build, installation of the site, and ongoing maintenance plus offering customer free charging for the first 24 hours of operation.
Asif Ghafoor, CEO of Be.EV said: “Stockport Council is getting ahead of the curve by providing reliable ultra-rapid and rapid charging for its residents to use that do not have off-road parking of their own, while generating additional footfall to retail hot spots.
“Other councils should sit up and take notice – sites like these are perfect for simultaneously achieving their net-zero transition goals while also providing a boost to local businesses.”
Independent ventures
As well as working together, both Stockport and Be.EV have been progressing independently over the past year to electrify UK transport.
In April 2023, Stagecoach announced plans to invest £37.2 million in a new fleet of 170 electric buses for Stockport.
The buses, 150 double deck and 20 single decks, will be produced by Volvo/MCV and are due to enters service in summer 2024.
In August 2023, Be.EV said it will deploy thousands of new EV chargepoints in the UK, primarily near cities like Birmingham, Derby and Nottingham across the Midlands.
The company is backed by £110 million from Octopus Energy Generation, and is aiming to identify dwell sites, like retail parks, and secure both leasehold and freehold land for the stations.