Four New IONITY Sites Begin Construction In UK

[Throb]

After what seems like a long gap (around six months), construction has begun on four new sites for IONITY in the UK.

"Singing Kettle" is on the North Wales coast on the A55 near Prestatyn.

The one that I think is a big help on a personal level is Leicester, which will help ease the Milton Keynes site which I find to be busy when heading north up the M1. This will be located in the Hilton car park just off junction 21.

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[ChrisM]

After what seems like a long gap (around six months), construction has begun on four new sites for IONITY in the UK.

"Singing Kettle" is on the North Wales coast on the A55 near Prestatyn.

The one that I think is a big help on a personal level is Leicester, which will help ease the Milton Keynes site which I find to be busy when heading north up the M1. This will be located in the Hilton car park just off junction 21.

Do we know when the Leicester one will open as that will be very helpful when driving up the M1 ?

 

[Hanny]

Do we know when the Leicester one will open as that will be very helpful when driving up the M1 ?

if construction and connection to the grid follow typical British work ethos, (x1 person working, x10 people talking about the work), at lest a year or two……..

 

[ChrisM]

Too true ....

 

[Jin]

Do we know when the Leicester one will open as that will be very helpful when driving up the M1 ?

can't see any published completion dates, but there is an ionity tracker here: https://ionity.ev-info.eu/

funnily they do show average construction times by country...

Finland seem to take ~50 days, Germany ~113 and the UK nearly 200!

https://ionity.ev-info.eu/statistics/lists/average-construction

 

[Throb]

Do we know when the Leicester one will open as that will be very helpful when driving up the M1 ?

I don't know, but as someone has answered subsequently, the UK seems to average around 200 days!

It would be great if someone local to Leicester could let us know when it's opened. The IONITY website may not always be up to date.

 

[Fish Fingers]

Stop the press......
An actual fast charger in North Wales.
Heavens above!

Now if only they could get some decent new roads to go with that charger.

It is truly woeful the charging infrastructure in N Wales.
Which is suprising considering all the green washing they do.

I just assume they don't like cars.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/mark-drakeford-says-building-roads-26948129

 

[Gnasher]

After what seems like a long gap (around six months), construction has begun on four new sites for IONITY in the UK.

"Singing Kettle" is on the North Wales coast on the A55 near Prestatyn.

The one that I think is a big help on a personal level is Leicester, which will help ease the Milton Keynes site which I find to be busy when heading north up the M1. This will be located in the Hilton car park just off junction 21.

The Leicester one will also help me. I’ll look out for you peeling off the M1 and cut you off so i don’t have to queue (like i inadvertently did to a poor Audi Q4 driver at MK)

 

[anonymouse]

I wonder whether Ionity will make these a decent capacity. All the UK ones I’ve visited are undersized. Tons of manufacturers are now giving cards with discounts on Ionity, but if there are only four stalls this is useless in busy times. Sites like Cobham (M25), Milton Keynes (M1) and Gretna Green should have been designed with 12-20 stalls (like a medium sized Tesla supercharger) not four.
Until we get rid of queuing, EV takeup will remain problematic in the UK.

Of course it would also help if Ionity put some effort into education and/or technical controls to discourage people from charging over 80% in busy times (as Tesla does) and to get people whose charging is limited to 50kW off the 350kW chargers.

 

[tigerbalm]

I wonder whether Ionity will make these a decent capacity. All the UK ones I’ve visited are undersized.

IONITY have said that 6-pedestal stations is their new minimum when building out new locations. I notice that here in Ireland they have some planning permissions in for both six and twelve pedestal stations.

So for sure in UK with uptick in EV adoption – you'll see these locations do the same. I wouldn't be surprised if they go for a minimum of eight.

They are going with 18 bay stations in Italy!

 

[MrBlueSky]

Excellent news for wee Northern Ireland who has been lagging well behind everyone else (including N. Wales ) by some margin.

There's been a bit of thought put into the siting as well with traffic coming into and out of Belfast from the South being served by the Kennedy Centre. The Toome site is a definite win for those travelling between Belfast and Derry/Londonderry.

Good news for a change.

'..........IONITY plans to invest £3 million by opening two new high-power stations - one at the Kennedy Centre in Belfast and the other at Toome service station.

Kennedy Centre will open with six 350kW HPC chargers and later extend to 11 chargers, while at Toome there will be 12 HPC chargers from the beginning.

And IONITY, one of the few networks currently operating 350kW ultra-rapid chargers, plans to expand both sites to 18 chargers in the future.

At those speeds, the latest electric cars like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 can recharge their batteries from 10 to 80 per cent in less than 18 minutes.

The IONITY network (www.ionity.eu) had previously charged a flat fee of £8 for all charging sessions, regardless of how much electricity drivers consumed.

But as of June, customers without contracts have been charged a rate at 74p per kWh, though those who access the network through manufacturer contracts from the likes of Audi, Mercedes, BMW and Porsche get a cheaper rate.'

 

[jonjon808]

From memory, the Ionity at Magor had six stalls fitted, but markings on the parking and space for at least the same again, so it wouldn't surprise me if they put in an initial capacity of the same and then grow easily if they need to.

 

[Ross]

The other big problem with Ionity is, so often, they are only kicking out 100kw instead of 350
Leeds and Cullompton are always <100 in my experience

 

[Gnasher]

The other big problem with Ionity is, so often, they are only kicking out 100kw instead of 350
Leeds and Cullompton are always <100 in my experience

Cullompton ones are always on the fritz… I’ve had two free (slower) charges there as a result.

What i don’t get is that IONITY is a collaboration with German cars and yet BMW get 28p rates.

 

[Daniel]

Too true ....

Really? I thought this problem only concerned France...