It’s a moot point whether there’s much of a case in the short or medium term for more Hyper Rapid units. Zapmap’s co-founder and chief operations officer Melanie Shufflebotham told us that while it was great PR, there wasn’t an immediately obvious commercial reason for a swing towards 400kW+ chargers.
“While the mass market likes the idea of being able to go up to a charger and fill up just as they would in a petrol station, I don’t think that’s realistic or even really desirable,” she said. “To me, 350kW is more than adequate for most drivers’ needs as most EVs are not yet able to pull charge at that speed – but it depends whether you’re thinking near term or long-term when chargers probably will become more powerful.”
Understandably, Richard Pink, chief technology officer at Project EV which developed the 480kW chargers for Park Garages, takes a more bullish line. “We recognised the importance of helping them stand out in a competitive market, which is why we developed our new 480kW hyper-speed charger,” he said. “This innovative charger can simultaneously deliver 240kW to two vehicles, ensuring faster, more efficient public charging. Moreover, it’s designed to accommodate the future of electric vehicles with advanced charging capabilities.”
If you want to take advantage of the UK’s fastest charger, you’ll need to find the service station located on Preston Road in Blackpool. We’re told the Park Garage Group had to make a significant investment in a ‘robust supply’ to power its league-table topping chargers on the site, but with 77 filling stations in its portfolio, (27 of which were acquired from the Issa brothers in 2021 following a Competitions and Markets Authority directive when the Issas purchased the Asda Group), you might find a similarly-rated Hyper-Rapid charger at a Park Garages site nearer to you soon.
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