EVwire brief: The UK's largest public charging hub for electric heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) is now open at Magna Park Lutterworth in Leicestershire, with the Electroway site starting out with 32 Kempower charging connectors delivering up to 400 kW.
Electroway sits inside Europe's largest dedicated logistics and distribution park, home to 50 depots run by companies such as Amazon, ASDA and Marks & Spencer. Truck parking specialist Keoma Energy operates the site, with funding from infrastructure investor Guardian Smart Infrastructure Management (GSIM).
Electroway posted about the site on LinkedIn:
The hub pairs its chargers with 180 secure parking bays, and the plan is to grow it to around 180 charging connectors over time. A second phase due early next year is expected to add megawatt-level charging of up to 1.2 MW.
Kempower says the 400 kW chargers can put around 300 kWh into an e-truck during a standard 45-minute driver break, good for up to 150 miles (241 kilometers) of range depending on the truck. The site's 2.4 MW of installed capacity is shared dynamically across its Kempower Satellite dispensers.
Kempower also announced site on LinkedIn:
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Electroway is built as a full truck stop rather than just a row of chargers. Drivers get 24/7 access to a bk World lounge, showers and laundry, and the site also has a truck wash, site-wide Wi-Fi and support for refrigerated trailers. Bays can be booked through the Bosch Road Services app, which reserves both the space and the charging power an electric HGV needs, while RFID cards are accepted too.
CX Energy handled the turnkey design, grid connection and installation on Keoma's behalf, while the Kempower hardware came through Charge Hub, Kempower's UK sales and service partner.
Rolle Nieminen, Kempower's Head of Sales for the UK and Ireland, described the hub as a template for charging inside logistics parks:
"The Electroway is a blueprint for dedicated public truck charging within logistics hubs. We're supporting Keoma Energy to provide convenient facilities for busy, on-the-go fleets and making electrification ever-more achievable for companies operating in the area. Because the technology scales, the site can start small and grow in line with demand as e-trucks become more common."
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Context:
Magna Park's location goes a long way toward explaining the choice of site. The park sits in what Electroway calls the UK's Golden Logistics Triangle, with links to the M1, M6 and M69 motorways bringing hundreds of freight drivers to its depots every day. Kempower notes that 40% of the park's tenants already have net-zero pledges, which puts a ready pool of potential e-truck customers right next to the chargers. Keoma, for its part, is building a network of renewables-integrated truck stops across the UK and plans to open around 20 more sites like Electroway over the coming years.
Electroway joins a growing list of heavy-duty charging projects in the UK. PragmaCharge recently opened its first UK e-truck charging hub at James Kemball's Felixstowe distribution centre, where two 360 kW chargers feed six dispensers for a fleet of eight Mercedes-Benz eActros 600s. Up in Scotland, Russell Group carried out the UK's first megawatt charging demonstration in September, taking a MAN eTGX from 20% to 90% in 30 minutes at its Coatbridge depot.
Source: Kempower, Kempower and Electroway on LinkedIn
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