Gridserve has opened an Electric Forecourt at London Gatwick, complete with 30 brand-new EV charging bays.

London Gatwick Electric Forecourt is the first EV charging facility of its kind at an international airport

It’s the charge point operator’s third Electric Forecourt, joining the Braintree and Norwich facilities, and its first at an international airport.

The new site is also Gridserve’s most advanced Electric Forecourt yet. It features 22 ultra-rapid chargers with up to 350kW of power. As with all Gridserve locations, the new-generation filling station features both CCS and CHAdeMO connectors, accepts contactless payment and provide real-time status updates to many EV charging maps.

The chargers are powered by net zero carbon energy – and increase charging capacity at the airport five-fold, supporting Gatwick on its journey to reach net zero by 2030.

The forecourt also features retail and food outlets, including a Little Fresh convenience store that debuts Amazon’s Just Walk Out AI tech to revolutionise the customer experience. Visitors to the shop simply tap their contactless payment card or smartphone wallet upon store entry and grab what they need. The technology detects what the shopper takes from, or returns to, store shelves and they can then leave the store without waiting in line, and their choice of payment method will be charged for the items.

The forecourt also includes a Costa Coffee store – Gridserve’s first as a corporate franchise partner – with customer-centric features such as Click & Collect. Drivers can even have their favourite coffee delivered directly to their charging bay.

Inside the Electric Forecourt, there is an interactive EV experience area where visitors can test their EV readiness and find out which EV suits them and get advice from Gridserve EV Gurus. As with the Braintree and Norwich Electric Forecourts, visitors can test-drive the latest electric vehicles, starting initially with the MG4 EV.

Toddington Harper, CEO of Gridserve, said: “We are excited to open our first charging facility at an international airport and help support London Gatwick on its journey to net zero. Our purpose at Gridserve is to deliver sustainable energy on the scale needed to move the needle on climate change, and this is certainly a project that moves the needle for the airport, and local workers and residents.”

Gridserve has also started construction on the next Electric Forecourt, located on the Knebworth Estate in Stevenage. Once complete, it will enable 34 electric vehicles to be charged simultaneously.

Planning permission is also approved at several other sites, including Markham Vale, Gateshead, Plymouth and Nevendon (Basildon), with more than 30 additional sites also under development.