UK’s largest public EV charging hub unveiled, with 180 charging bays and solar canopy

The UK has welcomed its largest public EV charging hub. The Gigahub, based at the campus of major UK live events company NEC Group, boasts 30 ultra-fast 150kW charging bays and 150 not-so-fast 7kW charge points.

It means that 180 EVs can charge simultaneously, albeit at different speeds. The ultra fast charging is delivered through 15 300kW chargers, each with two bays. It is the biggest in the UK and one of the biggest in Europe.

The charging campus, in the West Midlands, sits at the heart of the national motorway network, and is powered by renewables, including a rooftop solar canopy at the site.

The hub was officially opened on Thursday by the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt MP, and is a joint venture between BP Pulse the EV Network and NEC Group.

“The ground-breaking site will be a major transport hub for the future and marks a significant step in our rollout of electric vehicle charging infrastructure across the country,” said Hunt.

EVs are taking a growing share of the UK new car market, as we reported earlier this week, with one in five new cars being fully battery electric.

As of July 2023 there were approximately 840,000 fully electric cars on UK roads. In the first half of this year, 8.4% of new car sales in Australia were electric.

“The launch of the UK’s largest Gigahub is a massive game changer for EVN and a huge step forward for UK electric vehicle fast charging,” said Reza Shaybani, CEO and co-founder of EVN. “The EVN team responding to the public demand for more – charging and we are responding with hundreds of millions of pounds of new investment and the very latest technology.

EVN secured 6.5MVA grid connection, to support the entire infrastructure. “The strategic placement and impressive scale of this charging hub within the UK’s transport infrastructure offers reassuring support to drivers journeying between cities,” Shaybani said.