A filling station in Hammersmith, West London, has dismantled its petrol pumps and is reopening as a rapid-charge centre exclusively for EVs.

The BP Cromwell westbound garage near Oil Mill Lane has been closed since early March for engineering specialist NG Bailey to remove pumps and replace them with 300kW DC and 7kW chargers.

It will be fully open in January and incorporate a Marks & Spencer shop

BP is making 90% of its new charging points either rapid or ultra-fast, so cars can get a 100-mile recharge in 15 minutes.

The Great West Road garage conversion, with high-power grid connection, follows the opening of BP’s largest public EV charging gigahub at Birmingham’s NEC a year ago, allowing 180 vehicles to charge simultaneously.

Hammersmith & Fulham unveiled its first all-electric charge hub in Fulham Road in 2022, when a former Shell petrol station was converted to deliver nine ultra-rapid 175KW charge points.

The number of electric or hybrid cars in the borough has soared from under 350 in 2017 to 6,500 last year, with the number of electric charge points rising from 113 to 2,800 in the same time.

Richard Bartlett, head of BP Pulse, said the company focus was on fast charging, to address the fact that about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions come from the transport sector.

He added, “It’s the difference between adding hundreds of miles of range in minutes, and having to leave your car overnight on a slow charger.

“EV is ultimately a scale game, rolling out high-power charging sites with dozens of chargers per site.”

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