EV charger infrastructure developer TUAL has announced a strategic focus on the 8,000 automotive retailers facing critical grid constraints in the UK.
The company is seeking to help automotive retailers that lease their land and lack the grid capacity to install sufficiently rapid EV charging stations for their customers, inviting them to try their fully mobile PowerUp charging. Each station can be installed in under an hour and can deliver high-speed 200kW DC charging on an 11kW supply, even if that supply was previously only sufficient for trickle AC charging.
The PowerUp chargers store energy during off-peak periods to enable high-speed charging without the need for major grid upgrades. The chargers can also be integrated with onsite renewable energy generation, such as solar panels.
Data from TUAL notes that as many as 80% of automotive retailer sites suffer from supply constraints that limit their ability to charge EVs on site. However, local grid upgrades can take between one and three years to complete and cost dealers between £150,000 and £3 million—costs that are out of reach to many dealerships.
On this, Philip Clarke, CEO and founder of TUAL, said that automotive retailers are “being let down by infrastructure that isn’t fit for purpose”, adding: “Whether it’s a showroom in an urban centre or a pre-delivery inspection site on the edge of town, many retailers are stuck with slow or non-existent charging.”
Jason Button, managing director of Cambria Property Investments, agreed, saying that the installation of radpid chargers across many dealership sites in the UK is a “pipedream” for many, due to “prohibitively high capex, years waiting for a supply upgrade or additional grid connection and time spent potentially mired in planning red tape”.
To help resolve this, TUAL will work with a group of early adopters across the UK and Europe. These partnerships will help to deploy PowerUp chargers across various retail networks, ensuring that those who could most benefit from this technology have access to it.
This news comes shortly following a successful trial of the technology with supply chains solutions provider Wincanton. The PowerUp chargers were tested a month-long trial in West London, to establish if the technology could support the decarbonisation of Wincanton’s fleet, and enabled Wincanton to deliver an average of 4.9 high-powered DC charges per day, using an 11kW connection that previously delivered 1.2 low-powered AC charges per day.
According to the firms involved, this indicates that the technology could prove a useful asset to Wincanton going forward.
