Jaguar Land Rover installs UK’s largest ‘smart’ EV charging facility

The facility consists of 166 cloud-enabled charging outlets

The facility is based at JLR’s Gaydon facility and consists of 166 charging outlets, which are located within the centre’s employee and visitor car parks.

Each outlet has a maximum capacity of 7kW and is “brand agnostic”, meaning it is compatible with both hybrid cars and vans and pure EVs. JLR claims that an hour of charging will add around 22 miles of range to one of its Jaguar I-Pace vehicles, while a charge lasting for the eight-hour workday can add up to 176 miles.

The outlets have been installed as part of a partnership between JLR and Shell subsidiary NewMotion – a Dutch e-mobility solutions provider which hosts EV charging points at more than 3,200 workplace locations across Europe. Under the collaboration, JLR employees will be given a contactless NewMotion membership card, which they can use to “tap in” to any of the firm’s cloud-enabled charging points across the continent.

In order to ensure low-carbon charging, the JLR facility will be powered with 100% renewable electricity, sourced under power purchase agreements (PPAs) with EDF Energy.

“We hope that by providing a network of electric charging points to staff and visitors at our Gaydon engineering centre we can help encourage the uptake of alternative fuels amongst our employees,” JLR’s head of e-mobility Mick Cameron said.

“It’s all part of our commitment to acting more sustainably – our UK facilities are already powered by 100% renewable electricity and we believe the new charging points will help our employees to tread lightly on their daily commute.”

The launch of the facility comes as JLR is striving to stop producing petrol and diesel lines in order to focus solely on fully electric and hybrid vehicles – a commitment which was partly influenced by UK Government plans to ban all new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040 and new taxes on diesel vehicles.

Since announcing this pledge in 2017, the firm has unveiled its first fully electric premium car model, the I-Pace, which has been integrated into the fleets of companies such as Heathrow Airport and Wimbledon. However, JLR’s chief executive Dr Ralf Speth has previously warned that progress on delivering the firm’s electric vision could be slowed in the case of a “no-deal” Brexit.

Sustainability built-in

The charging facility builds on JLR’s previous work to minimise the environmental footprint of its Gaydon centre, which the firm has claimed will achieve BREEAM “Excellent” by the end of 2019.

The facility includes a number of built-in sustainability features such as rooftop solar panels, energy-efficient LED lighting and thermal insulation.

JLR’s construction process for the facility was also praised for its resource efficiency and carbon-saving measures, including a scheme to reuse around 800,000 m³  of soil for the construction of local grassland habitat.

Sarah George