Over 400 petrol station forecourts are to be equipped with rapid electric vehicle chargers following a deal between Chargepoint Services and the second largest independent forecourt operator in the UK.
Motor Fuel Group (MFG), responsible for 413 stations nationwide under the BP, Shell, Texaco, JET and Murco fuel brands, will host 50kW plus rapid chargers. They will become part of ChargePoint Services’s existing GeniePoint Network, which recently placed a £1 million order with French EV hardware supplier EVTronic to expand its UK presence.
Alex Bamberg, managing director of ChargePoint Services, said: “Electric Vehicle Charging is now a critical public service, and we are on target to provide the most reliable, widespread rapid charging facilities across the UK for drivers of electric vehicles, backed up by our excellent, continuous customer care program.”
The deal, thought to be the largest petrol station roll-out of EV chargers in the UK to date, marks the growing presence of charging infrastructure in the UK. The government recently unveiled plans to mandate that petrol stations should include a proportion of chargers as part of June’s Queen speech.
Since then, a number of forecourt operators are considering integrating the technology, with Shell announcing in May that it would install a provisional ten chargers at selected locations by the end of the year.
Jeremy Clarke, MFG’s chief operating officer, said: “We are delighted to be extending our fuel offer to customers. The growth of the electric and hybrid vehicle market is an important part of the fuel mix going forward. MFG is determined to be at the forefront of this technology, satisfying this growing demand.”
The infrastructure needed to incorporate the rising number of EV’s on UK roads – thought to currently stand at over 100,000 – has been the subject of much debate recently, with mainstream press jumping on negative claims around the cost of such integration.
National Grid, which is currently working on a new piece of work to address these concerns, recently published its ‘Forecourt Thoughts’ paper, which set out a strategy of establishing super-fast charging forecourts up and down the country to replace the nation’s fleet of petrol stations.
