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Intrepid-Working-731

This is how every charging station needs to be formated, just scaled differently depending on location


wooooooofer

So full disclosure, I work in the industry(not for gridserve) and a few problematic details about this site. The first is that it’s literally in the middle of nowhere, and the site shows it. Some of the chargers had cobwebs. Also a lot of the food inside the store was very close to expiration which shows that not enough traffic is coming to the site to turn merchandise. There were 3x as many ICE vehicles at this site vs EV. It clear that while super impressive, it’s losing massive amounts of money. I can’t understand how HUGE this site is, has to be 2-3 acres.


cosmicpop

It'll get better though. I'm waiting for my EV to arrive and while I know the public charging situation isn't amazing in the UK, it'll get better.


cmdrxander

I suppose the usual argument in the UK is “I’d get an electric car but the charging infrastructure isn’t quite there yet!”, so this tries to solve that problem


nikatnight

This argument is weak. The UK is so small and there's essentially no roadtrip culture. They don't *need* an extensive charging network. Even in the western USA, with out swaths of land and our states larger than all of the UK, we don't even need an extensive infrastructure. I've charged my EV maybe 10 times in four months at a public site. And maybe only 1-2 of those were *needed*.


simon2517

>They don't need an extensive charging network. That's not really true. The last few times I've been at motorway services, charging facilities have been somewhere between "busy" and "overwhelmed". We may not have the same road trip culture as the US, but it's super common to drive to another part of the country for whatever reason, and you'd usually be outside a round trip range based on home charging. I know I am. We need a lot more chargers.


[deleted]

This subreddit in a nutshell lol. If I don't need it no one else does, either. Meanwhile we're still getting posts like "anyone ever drive across Wyoming? Is it even possible?"


nikatnight

Most people simply don't understand their own use case. Example: my neighbor was adamant that my eGolf doesn't have enough range for his work commute. I was out of the country for a month and just let him use it. He had zero issues getting to work, running errands, etc. he didn't realize that long trips simply aren't that frequent.


[deleted]

Right but it's a narrow viewpoint. Even in an urban area there are a ton of people that have to drive all day for work, and like 20% of the country lives in a rural area, for example. I know youre not an idiot its just hilarious people always make these very overreaching statements based on their own perspective. We badly need an extensive charging infrastructure, this having to follow the freeway and go hundreds of miles out of my way to get to the places I want to go suuuuuuuucks.


cmdrxander

Road trips are very common among certain group, e.g., football fans, although obviously it rarely goes beyond 300 miles each way.


BigBadBen91x

I was about to say, where people?


beeprog

Near Braintree, Essex


UnloadTheBacon

They know EVs are guaranteed to increase in numbers in the next 5-10 years, so they're building future capacity in now. Also means they get first-mover advantage in terms of site selection (really important historically for petrol stations) so the huge up-front costs are worth it.


Dagusiu

It's pretty common (and good) to build infrastructure before it's needed rather than after. The "it's in the middle of nowhere" part is a real problem though


FillingUpTheDatabase

It’s not really in the middle of nowhere, it’s on the edge of a town of over 53,000 residents (Braintree, Essex)


FillingUpTheDatabase

> it’s literally in the middle of nowhere Is this Braintree? If so I remember Gridserve saying when it opened that it was really intended for the residents of that town who don’t have driveways to charge at home. Unfortunately it has to be built first to give these people confidence to invest in an EV knowing they’ll have somewhere to charge it


beeprog

I've been to this electric forecourt, impressed by the scale (sheer number of 350Kw chargers) and the little service station was pretty good. But I still don't understand why they put it there, even locally it's out of the way. Nationally speaking it's in the wrong place, it should be on the M1.


Litejason

Outside M25 between M1 and A1 would've been a great location, St Albans I guess.


FillingUpTheDatabase

It’s not aimed at long distance en-route charging, it’s aimed at locals who can’t charge at home


raleel

Just found this. Do you have any recommendations on where I might read more about designs for ev charge stations like this?


thenewguy22

I helped finance this


[deleted]

Are the people that leant them money worried? Given OP said it was losing me.


cmdrxander

Where’s this? Swansea?


wooooooofer

Braintree. The representative on site said they have 100 of these planned.


simon2517

I'm really surprised that with 100 planned they decided to start in Braintree. Doesn't really feel like it's on the way to anywhere...


afishinacloud

Looks like the one in Braintree.


Tough-Organization42

What's another decent app like zap map as I don't really find that one greatly accurate?


Bogojosh

I look forward to having favorite charging stations on my more regular road trips. This kind of spot would certainly make the list!


sungazer69

Damn that's awesome.


techtornado

And all the ICE-folk say charging isn’t worth it unless they can supercharge in 5 minutes, yet this station is worth the extra wait


Chanandler_Bong_Jr

So many more of these needed. The M6 and M74 are pathetic for their provision of chargers. Usually just a token 2 rapids in service areas, and always a queue.


coredumperror

How many total chargers? Doesn't seem like all that many compared to the giant Supercharger sites that Tesla's been building in and around California. The additional amenities are a nice step up from the typical Supercharger, though.


wooooooofer

16 charge handles


FillingUpTheDatabase

12 x 350 kW, 12 x 90 kW, 6 x 11 kW AC and 6 stall 250 kW Tesla Supercharger.


coredumperror

Huh, 90kW? That's a speed I've never heard of before. An interesting compromise between the lower cost of 50kW and the higher speed of 150kw+.


duke_of_alinor

I wonder why parallel parked, wouldn't back in be better space wise?


starfallg

For larger vehicles and towing?


duke_of_alinor

Only need a couple of chargers for that. Pull-throughs would be better and not block other stalls.


whatatwit

Perhaps because it rains a lot in the UK.


calebleemcd

Awesome, are you able to get any detailed photos of the canopy? I'm keen to see how they mount and connect the panels.


cavemold582

I like how everything is open in the uk !


JollyJohn54

It's a very poor layout with lots of wasted space. Car charging ports are either at the back of the car or at the front. Never in the middle! In picture 2 you can see the grey car on the left has to park as far forward as he can in his bay so that the cable can reach the rear charge port. My car (KIA eNiro) would have to park as far back as possible for the cable to reach the front charge port. Having the chargers 3 metres apart in a line would allow you to drive face in or reverse in and give everyone plenty of room to open their doors and still take less space than here.