Infracapital, the infrastructure equity investment arm of M&G Plc, has invested £200 million into Buckingham-based GRIDSERVE. The funding will help expand the electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure company’s Sun-to-Wheel model, which combines hybrid solar farms, its charging network of Electric Forecourts and Electric Hubs and the leasing of a wide range of the latest EVs.
“Through this investment partnership with Infracapital, we’re excited that our plans can accelerate, and it’s evident we now have the momentum we require,” said Toddington Harper, GRIDSERVE CEO. The company will work to deliver over 5,000 high-power chargers by 2025, utilising Infracapital’s investment. GRIDSERVE opened its latest Electric Hub in Yorkshire in July, the eighth in its rollout of sites around the UK.
Additionally, it opened its second Electric Forecourt in April in Norwich, following its flagship site in Braintree in 2020.
The latest investment from Infracapital follows multi-million pound partnerships with financial services company Mitsubishi HC Capital UK Plc and TPG Rise – the latter has increased its shareholding in GRIDSERVE as part of the Infracapital transaction.
The Rapid Charging Network
Along with its Electric Hubs and Forecourts, GRIDSERVE continues to build out its Electric Highway charging network, which now covers 85% of the UK’s motorway service areas and numerous retail destinations. Over 100,000 EVs are already using it to charge every month. In the year since the company acquired the Electric Highway from Ecotricity, the number of charging sessions tripled while the energy supply quadrupled, it noted in June.
There are now just over 32,000 chargers in the UK, with close to 6,000 classified as rapid (50kW or above). The government is due to a mandate that rapid chargers should be functioning 99% of the time. However, an analysis by Fastcharge’s Tom Riley on the UK’s top eight providers suggests that only Tesla (no failures) and GRIDSERVE (1%) would currently clear this hurdle. There is a long way to go along the road to Net Zero, but the latest investment in GRIDSERVE marks them out as one of the leaders in the race.
Thank goodness for Gridserve. This is a pay as you go charging station. Unlike other, you only pay £1 upfront as a holding fee. Just be care that each time you tap your card, £1 will be taken out of it. Also, bear in mind that if one vehicle is already in used on each Gridserve, you cannot use until they have fully finished, even though other charging cable is available.