Just as Exelby Services director, Rob Exelby, is about to go live with EV charging at his Coneygarth forecourt in Northallerton, north Yorkshire, he has discovered that chargepoint operator Fastned has applied for permission to build a charging plaza in the field next door to his site.
“My office is at the entrance to the site,” says Exelby, “and if I look out the window I can see the field where Fastned wants to build.”
A planning application has been submitted by Fastned to North Yorkshire Council for 20 rapid charging points covered by a solar panel canopy plus a drive-thru coffee shop.
Meanwhile, Exelby recently invested £500,000 on EV charging at the site – with £250,000 spent on the Shell Recharge equipment and the other £250,000 spent on getting more electricity to the forecourt.
This is his first foray into EV charging and he has four twin-point 200kW chargepoints scheduled to go live next month. Having purchased the kit outright, Exelby will retain most of the revenue. He says Shell will take a small, fixed percentage per kilowatt cut of the charging turnover to cover branding, merchant service fees and Shell Recharge app costs.
Once the four chargepoints are up and running, he hopes to add a further 12 chargers at the back end of this year. The chargepoints he has bought are somewhat future-proofed as they have the ability to be scaled up to 400kW.
Meanwhile, Exelby has plans for chargepoints at his Golden Fleece site in Carlisle but is waiting on the electricity connection.
Talking about the Fastned application, he says: “Having invested half a million pounds in EV charging, we will definitely be objecting to the application.
Exelby is a big fan of alternative fuels having gone into a partnership with hydrogen refuelling specialist Element 2 back in 2022, to introduce public HGV refuelling stations. He also offers HVO on pumps – branded HVO 100 Renewable Diesel – at three of his sites.
Fastned has been approached for comment.
