Ecotricity has today confirmed the sale of Electric Highway – a charging network for EVs, to Gridserve. The sale will enable Ecotricity to focus on its core green energy business. It recently developed Britain’s first Green Gasmill – a process of making ‘natural gas’ for the grid simply from grass. It will also bring forward a series of solar and battery storage projects to be built without government support, while expanding its Sky Mining facility – a carbon capture and storage process that turns atmospheric carbon dioxide into diamonds.
The Electric Highway began a decade ago, in this time charging has leapt from 3-pin plugs and 7kW charging to the current 350kW, capable of providing 100 miles of charge in around 5 minutes, while typical car range has increased from 80 miles to over 300.
Gridserve are ramping up investment in the Electric Highway with the replacement of all the existing chargers on the network with new technology that features all the latest advances including contactless payment – and the opening last month of the first high power charging facility at Moto’s new flagship Motorway services at Rugby, featuring 12 x 350kW chargers (right).
Dale Vince OBE, Founder, Ecotricity, said, “We’ve reached an interesting point in the electric car revolution, exponential growth is just around the corner, the technology for charging has evolved with one standard and an incredible rate of charging now being possible – using an electric car is almost on a par with using a fossil powered car, where you can just top up once every week or two. And the Electric Highway needs a growth spurt, to make sure that it stays ahead of driver demand and continues to play it’s key role, as the network that delivers more miles every year than any other. For this the Electric Highway needs an owner with access to serious funding and real commitment to the cause – I’m delighted to have found the ideal company to hand the baton to, in Gridserve.”
