Brent Cross shopping centre to offer 236 EV chargers

A 236-bay electric vehicle (EV) charging hub will be installed at Brent Cross Shopping Centre, making it the largest facility of its kind in the UK.

The hub will be installed and operated by Franklin Energy. It is expected to be completed in 2026.

Initially, 50 22kW charging points will be installed in the shopping centre’s multi-storey car park along with two 350kW ultra-rapid units in the Western overflow car park. These will be completed by the end of 2021.

Brent Cross shopping centre is co-owned by Hammerson and Aberdeen Standard Investments. The new charging hub will be Hammerson’s ninth destination to offer charging points.

Louise Ellison, group head of dustainability at Hammerson, said: “The installation of the UK’s largest EV charging facility will not only attract more visitors to our centres at a time when we are expecting to see a significant increase in electric vehicles on the roads, but also shows our continued commitment to tackling climate change, as we continue our journey towards becoming net positive by 2030.

“Combined with our renewable electricity contracts, this service has the potential to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of visitors to Brent Cross by supporting the transition to electric vehicles. ”

In addition to benefiting existing customers visiting the shopping centre, the facility will also provide charging points for cars passing by on the nearby M1, A41 and A406 via the North Circular.

The EVBox charging units will be part of Franklin Energy’s LiFe Network which is expected to have 5,000 public chargers by 2025.

Niall Macdonald, deputy fund manager for the Aberdeen Standard UK Shopping Centre Trust, added: “The scale of this installation of electric vehicle charging points at Brent Cross is our most ambitious to date and we believe it will provide a fantastic service to our customers allowing them to make the change to EV confident in the knowledge that this facility is available to them.”