Ubitricity has snapped up the SureCharge network made up of around 2,400 residential lamp post charge points across London. The newly acquired plugs will be rebranded as Shell Recharge over the coming months, with the transition work expected to be completed by the end of April. The move makes Ubitricity the largest charge point operator in the UK with over 14,000 plugs. You can check out our guide for using one of the lamp post chargers here.
It’s been a busy year for Gridserve already – in addition to its two new eHGV charging hubs, it’s just opened up a new hub at Beaconsfield services on the M40. As well as the existing six 50kW plugs, there are now six 400kW-capable Alpitronic chargers (that will be familiar to anyone who has charged on the continent) with 12 plugs in total, sitting on the other side of the site by the Ibis Budget hotel. Gridserve says it has six more of these ‘super hubs’ coming this year.
Kent county council has just awarded a £12m contract to a charge point operator called Urban Fox (it’s definitely real though, backed by building firm Balfour Beatty) to install 10,000 EV charge points and maintain them over the next 20 years. The money has come from a local infrastructure fund set up by the Department for Transport that aims to make charging more accessible to households without off-street parking.
Duracell has opened its second and third rapid charging hubs within weeks of each other – the new sites are at Swalwell in Gateshead and Saltney in Chester and feature 300kW capable chargers decked out in Duracell’s signature colours. Call us fickle, but we think we’d pick a charge stop just based on how cool the chargers look.
Service station operator Roadchef welcomes you to stop by its site at Magor on the M4 new Newport, where it has just installed 12 new ultra rapid chargers that’ll juice your car at up to 360kW. There’s a 24-hour McDonald’s there too, apparently. Roadchef has a deal with Gridserve to operate charge points at its services.
Ionity has just opened its ‘most urban’ charge hub to date, marking a shift from its strategy of siting its hubs on motorways. The new hub in Birmingham is seconds away from the A38M, so it is on the way to the motorway though. The redeveloped car park has six 400kW chargers offering 12 plugs, and the company says it plans more sites like this in Manchester and London.
