Dundee City Council (DCC) has opened a brand-new EV charging hub, centred around accessibility and featuring latest innovations.

Image credit: Mark Thomas

Located on Clepington Road, it’s the city’s fourth rapid charging hub and was developed in partnership with Swarco, Urban Foresight and Bluewater.

The hub features four rapid 50kW chargers, plus a 150kW ultra-rapid charger for public use, in line with the council’s plans to gradually introduce more 150kW chargers around the city in the future.

It also employs solar panels, fixed to the overhead canopies and providing power to second-life battery storage units, which contain 800kW of energy that can be drawn on during times of high usage.

DCC also contracted Bluewater to install a drinking water system onsite. Said to be a world first, this uses the canopy roof over the chargers to capture rainwater, which is then filtered into a purifying machine, powered by energy produced by the solar panels. This releases fresh drinking water for the public to fill up their water bottles at the two filling stations situated beside the chargers.

Future developments will see the site expand to support the council’s depot vehicles, featuring 21 x 7kW chargers, 1 x 100kW charger, and 2 x 50kW chargers to power more than 200 vehicles. As with the public side, solar canopies will also be positioned overhead, but offering increased height to accommodate depot vans.

The new development was designed based on insights from the existing charging infrastructure along with feedback received from drivers of the difficulties of using EV charge points. The plans also followed advice from the BSI PAS 1899:2022 standard on accessible public charge points, delivering wide spaces and with level access to charge points from bays, as well as wheelchair access to and from the site.