Electric vehicle charging
Taking charge With just eight years to go before the UK steps away from the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles, garden centres are grappling with a conundrum – is this the right time to install electric vehicle charging facilities?
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arden centres are heavily dependent on car users, so providing EV charging stations in their car parks – especially for those with spaces for hundreds of vehicles – appears to some to be an obvious opportunity, both to provide a customer service and to create a potential new revenue stream. Dobbies has already thrown its hat into the ring, pledging to install charging hubs in 30 of its 68 stores in a deal with GRIDSERVE, while the Blue Diamond Group says it will install EV charging in all its centres this year through a supplier-funded scheme. How ready are others to follow suit? GTN has been attempting to find out. We invited a cross-section of leading operators to share their thinking with us – but the disappointingly low response could indicate that this is not yet a top priority for most. Meanwhile, it would seem there is a growingg need for more information from suppliers to add clarity in what is still a fledgling market place and make
it easier for garden centres to decide whether or not to become adopters at this early stage Martin Stewart, Managing Director of Stewarts Garden Centres (which operates three centres on the south coast of England), drives an electric car, which he charges at home. “So far we have not installed electric charging points,” he told us. “I would be very interested in hearing how much they are being used by those who have installed them. “One of the reasons for buying it [an all-electric car] was to understand where this electric journey is taking us. “To my mind, people with electric vehicles will charge them at home and go about their day, retuning to recharge at home at the end of the day. That will suffice for 95% of our customers, even those driving, say, 35 miles to come to us. It is the cheapest and most convenient option for the vehicle owner. “What do we want to put charggingg points in for? I would never usee one. It is the main trunk routes that need rapid chargers.”
Guy Topping, Managing Director of the award-winning Barton Grange Garden Centre near Preston, is also ambivalent at this stage. “We have looked at them and nearly proceeded a couple of times, but have always been put off by: Not being sure we were installing the best/ rigght ones Cars charging Thinking they are going to quickly improvve at a Dobbies so we will end up with dated technology gyy Garden Centre
Darran Oakley (Squire’s Purchasing Director) at one of the new electric charging points at Squire’s Garden Centres.
More information gridserve.com uk.mer.eco pod-point.com
8 GTN’s Sustainability Directory 2022
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