North East Retail Hotspots Ready to Charge your Car

July 29, 2011 - PRLog -- Electric car-driving shoppers in North East England are taking advantage of two Rapid Chargers recently installed at Dalton Park  'The Biggest outlet store in the North East' and the Metrocentre 'Britains Biggest Shopping Centre'.  

The 50kw Rapid Chargers funded by the North East's plugged in places programme Charge your Car and installed by SWITCH EV's VINCI Energies engineers , can recharge cars such as the Nissan LEAF and Mitsubishi i-MiEV to up to 80% of their capacity in 20 – 30 minutes compared to 8 hours for a full charge using a 3kw standard charge point.

The Rapid Chargers have been positively recognised by the retailers who are leading the way in supporting the increased demand for facilities for re-charging shopper’s electric vehicles at these key retail locations.

Jerry Hatch, Centre Director, Dalton Park “with over 22,000 car visits each week, we can expect a significant increase in the use electric vehicles over the next two years and we want to be well placed to offer customers “anxiety-free” car charging facilities.  We also envisage that Dalton Park’s location just off the A19 means that we are likely to become a strategic charging point for tourists and visitors to the area”.

Tim Lamb, General Manager, The Metrocentre "The four normal chargers we have at the Metrocentre will charge your car from zero to full in say six or eight hours. The rapid charger we have will charge it to 80% in up to 30 minutes, and I think it will make a real difference. As more and more people start to buy these cars we’ll install more charging points."

SWITCH EVs highly experienced engineers can supply and install charge point equipment from any manufacturer at the most challenging of locations, providing support and maintenance to ensure operators maintain a fully functioning network and hardware.

Andy Harvey EV infrastructure manager for SWITCH EV “we are delighted to have been chosen by North East Plugged in Places team to design and install the civil and electrical works required for the rapid charger at the Metrocentre our third in the north east. We have seen an increase in the number of enquiries for rapid charging from across the UK, with electric vehicle owners charging at home and work rapid charging infrastructure is an ideal solution for longer journeys in these out of town locations.

VINCI Energies are the UK market leader in installing rapid chargers, £750,000 of equipment already installed this year.

For more information about electric vehicle charging infrastructure for retail and business parks please contact us at http://www.switchev.co.uk

More information

SWITCH EV

SWITCH EV is a partnership between Future Transport Systems and Vinci Energies UK
We are the only company that operates electric vehicle infrastructure and offers development solutions independent of technology and energy supply. We offer a highly flexible service to meet with the challenges associated with EV infrastructure development.

Charge your Car (North East England Plugged in Places programme)

The Charge your Car project is currently looking for further strategic locations for quick chargers especially in the South of the North East region. Anyone interested in hosting a quick charger or accessing the match-funding for charging points should visit: http://www.leadthecharge.org.uk

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SWITCH EV provides development and operation services for EV infrastructure. If you are constructing a business model, assessing demand for charge points or wanting to operate a network, we have the experience to support projects with bespoke solutions.