First Bus is building a new consumer EV charging hub at its Summercourt depot on the main A30 tourist route into Cornwall available to drivers of electric cars and vans.
The site will include a total of eight 75kWh rapid DC chargers which can fully charge a car in under 30 mins, provided and installed by partners Heliox UK and available on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Preparation works are now underway, and it is anticipated that the hub will be fully operational and open to the public later this summer.
Power is already partially provided by solar panels, which were installed earlier this year.
The chargers will also be available for local businesses to use following the successful pilot of B2B charging provision by First Bus in Glasgow and Leicester, where companies such as DPD and Police Scotland benefit from the use of the operator’s infrastructure for their EV fleets.
First Bus have planning applications in for 17 additional First Bus sites around the UK that will be fitted with electric charging infrastructure in preparation for a future switch to a fully zero emission bus fleet by 2035.
More than 600 buses – 15% of its UK fleet – will be zero emission from March 2024.
Isabel McAllister, First Bus UK, Chief Sustainability Officer, said: “We’re proud to be leading the way with this industry first for consumer electric charging. We want to help the communities we serve with their own transition to zero emissions transport solutions.
“We believe this is the right thing to do. By futureproofing sites like Summercourt, we are proud to be progressing our net zero journey and investing in a greener future for our local communities.”
