Saturday Special Interview: GRIDSERVE’s Toddington Harper | 03 July 2021

Episode 1132,   Jul 03, 2021, 11:00 AM

Today’s big EV stories:
• Meet the CEO of GRIDSERVE
• His vision for public charging
• Launching the GRIDSERVE Electric Highway

Show #1132.
 
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Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Saturday 3rd July. It’s  Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story so you don't have to.
 
Thank you to MYEV.com for helping make this show, they’ve built the first marketplace specifically for Electric Vehicles. It’s a totally free marketplace that simplifies the buying and selling process, and help you learn about EVs along the way too.
 
SATURDAY SPECIAL INTERVEW: GRIDSERVE’S TODDINGTON HARPER
 
A long time ambition achieved today with the CEO of GRIDSERVE, Toddington Harper, sitting down with me for an in depth chat about the business of public charging.
 
Many of you, not just in the UK, will be familiar with their debut site the Braintree Electric Forecourt. 36 chargers, including 350kW HPCs, under a solar canopy and with facilities from supermarket to food, meeting rooms and a small workout area.
 
In April they opened the UK’s largest high power motorway charging site, a development it promises will become ubiquitous as it transforms its network of facilities on the country’s motorways and major roads. 12 x 350kW chargers at MOTO’s new Rugby services 
 
The installation was the first under the Electric Highway’s new partnership with GRIDSERVE, which saw the company take a 25% stake in the Highway – as well as bringing its acclaimed technology and expertise to the network.
 
Then in early June we haerd the news that GRIDSERVE had aquired the whole of the Electric Highway.
 
In just six weeks GRIDSERVE has replaced over 80 chargers at over 50 locations with 150+ sites on track to be upgraded by September.
 
In addition to upgrading the existing chargers, a new programme to deliver more than 50 high-powered ‘Electric Hubs’ with 6-12 x 350kW chargers in each location across the UK motorway network is also announced today.
 
QUESTION OF THE WEEK WITH EMOBILITYNORWAY.COM
 
If you could only afford one, would you rather - Solar Panels or battery storage? On one hand, energy generation. But then again, being able to store electricity when it’s cheap and use it later to charge your EV. 
 
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