Gridserve has replaced all the legacy chargers in its Electric Highway network, enabling contactless payment and fast charging at all sites.
Since June 2021, when Gridserve acquired Ecotricity, around 300 existing Medium Power Electric Highway chargers at more than 130 motorway service areas, run by Extra, Moto, Roadchef, Welcome Break and Westmorland, have been replaced with Gridserve units.
The company has also started to deliver new High Power Electric Hubs, which consist of six or more high power chargers, with three of these new sites operational today and a further nine currently under construction.
The Swansea, Exeter and Burton-in-Kendal Electric Hubs have chargers capable of speeds up to 350kW. The sites are on major arterial routes in south Wales, south west and north west England, where 24 new chargers can deliver up to 100 miles of range in less than 10 minutes.
Gridserve has started to roll out a dual charging feature on its medium power chargers. This enables multiple connectors to be used at the same time, on a single charger, doubling the number of cars that can charge at once at those locations.
Toddington Harper, Gridserve CEO, said: “As an early adopter of electric vehicles myself, the Electric Highway network played an essential role in enabling me to make the switch. However those days are long gone and Gridserve’s focus is delivering an EV charging network fit for purpose to support the mass-market transition to electric vehicles.
“Following us commencing the upgrades in 2021, within a matter of months the Gridserve Electric Highway achieved the highest customer satisfaction rating in the network’s 10-year history in Zap-Map’s consumer survey. Headwinds caused by global supply chain issues, manufacturing and transportation delays, compounded with new contractual issues to work through, made completing our upgrade plans more challenging than we had initially anticipated, so we are really pleased to be able to celebrate this milestone today.
“We’ve had great feedback from drivers on both the network upgrades and also on our new High Power Electric Hubs, which provide the best possible charging experience, and are already enabling more drivers to travel quickly and comfortably around the UK.”
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Matt has been an automotive journalist for eight years. As senior staff writer he is responsible for the automotive content on Fleet News and also contributes to Automotive Management. Prior to this, Matt worked in the automotive industry for 10 years.
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