Two electric vehicle HyperHubs that could provide best practice design for EV charging facilities in cities are opening in York.  

The Monks Cross HyperHub is one of the largest EV charging hubs in Northern England

The Monks Cross HyperHub, next to one of York’s Park and Ride sites, has opened this week and is one of the largest EV charging hubs in Northern England. It features four 175kW ultra-rapid chargers – which can be upgraded to 350kW – along with four 50kW rapid chargers, while an adjacent area houses 30 x 7kW chargers for park-and-ride users. All chargers take contactless payment and can be accessed by cars and vans, while the facility has been designed with no kerbs to allow disabled access.  

The site also has a solar canopy, which not only protects drivers but also enables the generation of renewable energy that can be stored in Tesla Powerpack batteries at the hub, managed by GridBeyond and helping to reinforce the grid.  

A second HyperHub is also set to open next to the Poppleton Bar Park and Ride site in the summer, and a third site is due to open near the city centre in 2022.   

The new HyperHubs are the result of a partnership between the City of York Council and EvoEnergy and have been developed on the back of the council’s Electric Vehicle Charging Strategy. This not only explored the required criterial for the chargers to meet the needs of residents, fleets, commuters and through traffic, but also identified that the best approach was for the council to own its charging network.  

The hubs have been founded with the help of £1m of European Regional Development Funding and £800,000 from the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles, along with £400,000 of the council’s own capital funding to install the first two HyperHubs. This has resulted in 80% of the £2.2m project being externally funded.  

The council said the new sites could provide a blueprint for other cities – alongside the existing charging points already available in car parks around the city centre, the HyperHubs will cater for diverse charging needs while bringing an alternative to on-street overnight charging.  

EvoEnergy’s Jonathan Roper, principle renewable energy consultant, added: “The York HyperHubs, with elements such as ABB rapid and ultra-rapid chargers, solar energy generation and battery storage, act as a technology showcase. Combined with GridBeyond’s management of the battery for participation in grid balancing services, the sites actually help to strengthen the electricity grid and will allow the latest electric vehicles – and the next generation of EVs – to charge in a hassle-free way, helping to reduce emissions from road transport in York.”