London Gatwick's new electric forecourt can help give drivers the confidence to transition to electric cars, says GRIDSERVE founder

The new facility in London Gatwick’s South Terminal was very busy in it’s first week and Toddington Harper believes the convenience, accessibility and environmental impact will help people change their minds about electric cars quicker.

He told us: “Getting to Net Zero is incredibly important and the speed we need to get there is critical. The UK has signed up to get to Net Zero by 2050 but the reality is getting to Net Zero by then doesn’t really align with the needs and science of climate change. We need to get there as quickly as we possibly can. So by building infrastructure like this, it means people can transition to electric cars today - not by 2050.”

The new facility is powered by Net Zero Carbon energy. “When customers they turn up at a GRIDSERVE charging station, whether it’s at London Gatwick or across 80 per cent of the motorway network, when they plug into a GRIDSERVE charger, your vehicle is being charged by Net Zero energy. What that means is that every kilowatt-hour of electricity that goes into a car, is netted off by a zero-carbon kilowatt-hour of electricity we are producing either directly by GRIDSERVE by our own solar farms or if we have got excess needs, which we often do, we will be buying other renewable energy from other renewable energy projects.

“So people can know they can transition today and have a better experience than petrol and diesel. You will be powered by renewable energy, you have great facilities you wouldn’t get at petrol stations and there’s no need to wait. What we are hoping to do with projects like this is give people the confidence to transition to electric cars as quickly as possible.”

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And Mr Harper was delighted to see the new facility open. He said: “This is the most advanced electric charging facility at any airport in the world, it’s the first electric forecourt at any airport in the world.

“It’s designed to be able to give visitors to London Gatwick complete confidence to come here in electric vehicles and also designed to support staff who work in the area to transition to electric vehicles. It’s designed for residents, it’s very accessible from the motorway.

"“It means if you are in the London Gatwick area, even if you are not visiting the airport, you can charge an electric vehicle without any concerns at all and with a better experience than at any petrol forecourt.

“In addition to the 30 chargers here, most of them high-power chargers up to 350 kilowatt-hour , capable of providing 100 miles of charge in five minutes.”