A West Midlands petrol station has gained planning permission to replace its car wash with electric vehicle chargers.
As reported by the Express & Star, approval was granted for the Shell Compton Service Station, which is located on Wolverhampton’s Bridgnorth Road.
The existing car wash facility will be demolished, with charging devices for up to seven electric cars taking its place.
Power in, wash out
In approving the planning permission, Wolverhampton City Council noted the ‘addition of the electric vehicle charging points will help contribute towards renewable sustainable energy and help the air quality of the area’.
The seven EV chargers will be housed beneath a separate canopy to the petrol station forecourt, and offer charging speeds of up to 150kWh.
Motor Fuels Group (MFG), one of the UK’s largest independent forecourt operators, was responsible for the planning permission request. It manages more than 900 filling stations across the country, and has made major plans to introduce EV charging.
MFG has committed to invest £400 million in ultra-rapid EV tech, aiming to install more than 3,000 individual charging devices by 2030.
More charging capacity needed
The company opened seven new EV charging locations at the end of 2022, and has a total of 280 ultra-rapid chargers now in operation. All of the most recent sites have been added to existing petrol station forecourts.
A need for greater EV charging has been highlighted by the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). It notes that charging access ‘remains a barrier to EV uptake’ and that the ‘government’s EV Infrastructure Strategy forecast that the UK would require between 300,000 and 720,000 chargepoints by 2030’.
The SMMT says that even to meet the minimum requirement of 300,000 charging devices, ‘more than 100 new chargers to be installed every single day’. The current rate of installation is said to be around 23 chargers per day.
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