SWARCO Smart Charging, a leading provider of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, has completed the installation of two rapid electric vehicle chargepoints at Machynlleth in Powys, enabling residents and visitors to access charging at the Maengwyn Street car park.
The installation comes as Transport for Wales continues its roll-out of a new rapid charging network which will eventually provide EV charging at every 25 mile stretch of the country’s Strategic Road Network.
By the end of the year, SWARCO expects to have installed at least 35 50kW rapid chargepoints at 18 sites spread across four Welsh Local Authority areas: Carmarthenshire, Powys, Denbighshire and Gwynedd. The majority of the chargepoints are being installed, conveniently, within local authority-owned car parks.
The first site – at Bala – went live last November, and the next site expected to go live is Crickhowell in South Wales. Since Bala became operational there have been more than 1,400 charging sessions (delivering 29,641 kWh of electricity) and by June the site was being used more than seven times a day (delivering a combination of either AC and DC charging sessions).
Anne Buckingham, Sales Director of SWARCO Smart Charging is encouraged to see that the Bala site is already proving popular: “It is commonly accepted that the future uptake of EVs – in Wales and other parts of the UK – is dependent on having an appropriate charging infrastructure in place. That means installing chargepoints now, even when demand is not especially high.
“It is very encouraging, therefore, to see data that demonstrates how often the Bala site is being used, and we hope and expect to see the same for Machynlleth now that the SWARCO rapid chargepoints are in use.”
Anne says that a great deal of work is going into the creation of this rapid charging network: “It is a complicated project involving multiple authorities, and multiple lease agreements, and considerable investment to get the necessary power to the individual sites but ultimately this network will be a catalyst for change,” she concludes.
