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World’s First All-Electric Forecourt Opens Up A New Channel For Convenience Retailers

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Electric car charging just got easier in the U.K. with the opening of what is claimed to be the world’s first electric forecourt, complete with five retailers to keep customers happy while their car batteries are topped up.

Deliberately designed to look like a gas station, the site near Braintree in Essex, close to London, can charge 36 vehicles simultaneously and has an ultra-modern ‘Best of British’ retail component tagged on. It features well-known High Street brands: WHSmith, Costa Coffee, supermarket chain Booths, Post Office, and ready meals maker Gourmade.

Other facilities include a waiting lounge, free and fast WiFi, washrooms, a dedicated kid’s area and a wellbeing space complete with—as you might expect—exercise bikes that generate electricity. Business meeting pods are also available at the new test site.

Operator Gridserve, a start-up sustainable energy company, promises a network of over 100 electric forecourts within five years which, as more electric vehicles take to the roads, are likely to increase in size with correspondingly more ambitious retail units and other services attached.

A spokesperson for Gridserve told Forbes.com: “There will be scope to have more retail brands and store space at future locations dependent on demand and the footprint available.” For the foreseeable future, Gridserve will be selecting the brands while WHSmith will manage the retail area in which they operate.

A second electric forecourt site close to the city of Norwich in Norfolk is currently in development which has the retail offer positioned above the charging stations.

Britain has announced a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 and Gridserve’s entry into the market and $1.3 billion (£1 billion) growth plan represents a breakthrough for large-scale electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure in the U.K.

Toddington Harper, founder and CEO of Gridserve—together with a long track record in renewable energy—said: “Charging has to be simple and free of anxiety, which is why we’ve designed our electric forecourts entirely around the needs of drivers (by) updating the traditional petrol station model for a net-zero carbon world. It’s actually less expensive to use an electric car than a petrol or diesel alternative.”

Initial charges are just 22 cents per kWh of energy (including VAT), which is claimed to be the lowest ultra-high power charging rate on the market. This means a typical charge from 20% to 80% costs about $9 for an average-size car.

Retailers of all types will be watching this pilot site with interest. Toby Keir, managing director at WHSmith—whose travel retail sites span airports to train stations—said: “We understand how important convenience is to people on the go. We have been serving customers on their journeys for over 200 years and we look forward to playing our part over the next 100 years with the future of electric cars.”

The U.K. government’s commitment to electric vehicles will no doubt support Gridserve’s ambitions for the development of charging infrastructure and associated retail service. James Cleverly, the former Conservative Party chairman and MP for Braintree commented: “This is the most advanced charging facility in the world and (will) drive confidence to make the move to sustainable transport in the U.K.”

The electric forecourts project is being funded by Hitachi Capital (UK) and Innovate UK part of Britain’s national funding agency UKRI; as well as Gridserve. A detailed 2020 study from Deloitte suggests that EVs are here to stay with global sales of battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric cars tipping past two million vehicles for the first time in 2019.

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