As someone who owns an EV, that huge asphalt parking lot saddens me. Could they not plant some trees every other space or something?

If you visit the NEC you can now prebook “EV Park and Charge” spaces rather than the regular event carparks. From fiddling with the booking tool it appears the price is no different (although you obviously have to pay for charging on top).

The Swarco points in the other carparks are still available on a first come first served basis. They are 36p/kWh, I think the new BP ones are 59p/kWh, so there is a bit of a premium from booking the new ones.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The multimillion-pound site will provide the UK’s highest concentration of super-fast chargers in one location after the biggest-ever private investment in Britain’s charging infrastructure.

The charging zone is located on the outskirts of Birmingham at the hub of the UK motorway network, with access to the M42, M46 and A45 and what will eventually become the new HS2 rail station.

“This is the biggest private investment in electric charging in the UK and is a huge vote of confidence in Britain’s role as a leader in green industries,” Hunt said.

Andrew Cole, a director at the NEC Group, said the conference centre’s campus, which has 7 million visitors a year, could now charge about 1,000 electric cars in every 12-hour day.

The “Gigahub” was developed between the NEC, independent charging infrastructure company EV Network and BP Pulse, which operates the site.

“We plan to roll out hundreds of hubs this decade in places EV drivers needs them – urban areas, on trunk roads and motorways and at destinations such as restaurants, retail parks and hotels,” he said.

The original article contains 419 words, the summary contains 177 words. Saved 58%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

Still over 90% of all public charging stations are in the greater London area. When will the rest of the UK get its fair share?