Sale Water Park switches on Manchester’s largest ultra-rapid EV charging hub
£1m project installed and maintained by community-focused charging network Be.EV
Site can charge up to 380 cars a day thanks to cutting-edge, load-balancing chargers
Commuters, local residents and park visitors are set to benefit, with site just two minutes from M60
Trafford’s Sale Water Park has opened the largest ultra-rapid electric vehicle charging hub in Greater Manchester.
The £1million state-of-the-art site is installed and maintained by EV charging network Be.EV. Equipped with 16 ultra-rapid charging bays, it can charge up to 380 EVs each day and is accessible around the clock to Trafford residents and commuters on the M60, which sees an average daily traffic of over 100,000 vehicles.
Monday 2nd October saw Trafford Borough councillors, Be.EV staff and the general public come together at the 152-acre park to celebrate the site’s launch.
Kayakers, swimmers, dog walkers and sailors can now charge their vehicles whilst out on the water with Trafford Water Sports Centre, or grabbing a bite to eat at the nearby Boathouse Grill restaurant. Commuters will also benefit, with the Be.EV charging hub located just two minutes from the M60.
The site is equipped with ultra-rapid Kempower chargers that can charge an EV to 80% in as little as 20 minutes. The cutting-edge technology intelligently distributes energy supply between vehicles according to capacity and demand - meaning that if one car reaches the maximum amount of power on one charger, any residual energy supply can be reassigned to another vehicle connected on-site.
The opening comes at a time when national parks across the country are ramping up their EV charging offering, with the Lake District recently announcing an ‘EV Trail’ around the world heritage site. The site at Sale Water Park marks a major step forward for Trafford Council, who is leading the charge to enable more of the public to join the EV movement. The council is working towards an ambitious target of getting all of Trafford’s 236,000 residents within 10 minutes of a charger.
Asif Ghafoor, CEO of Be.EV, said: “We’re really pleased to be bringing ultra-rapid charging to Sale. The water park is a hub of activity, and it was great to see the local community and Be.EV members visit the site and learn about the cutting-edge chargers.
“It’s important that EV charging matches what communities need. We want to create charging hubs that are at the right speeds in the right places - rapid and ultra-rapid hubs in proximity to major motorways and trunk roads will play a key role in this mission.
“Sale Water Park is a beautiful site, and we’re proud to provide local residents and M60 commuters alike with reliable, ultra-rapid charging whilst enjoying the park’s scenery and attractions or simply passing through.”
Richard Roe, Trafford Council Corporate Director of Place, said: “Sale Water Park is one of the borough’s most popular destinations so we’re delighted visitors will now be able to take advantage of these convenient rapid chargers.
“We hope their launch will encourage more people to join the EV movement while continuing our ambition to make it possible for anyone to go electric, no matter where they live in Trafford.”
Sale Water Park is the latest project in Be.EV’s wider collaboration with Trafford Council, and has already seen more than 41 chargers go live across the region. Be.EV’s public charging network is the largest across the North West with a rapidly expanding national footprint. The network boasts an impressive operational availability rate of 99.6%.