A new stand-alone rapid-charging site has been opened in East Sussex on the A27, near the historic town of Lewes and close to Brighton by charging network specialist Ionity.
The new site features six 350kW high-power electric vehicle chargers as well as a recently-opened on-site Starbucks coffee shop providing food and beverages along with indoor and outdoor seating and other facilities for motorists while they wait for their vehicle to be charged.
The site is located at the former Newmarket Inn building in Lewes, which has been refurbished to accommodate Starbucks customers travelling on the busy A27 trunk road. The Starbucks Coffee shop is owned and operated by Cobra Coffee Ltd, a franchisee of Starbucks based in Hampshire.
Ionity says the opening of the site is a landmark one for the company, answering the public’s call for more rapid charging in and around the greater Brighton area, a popular destination for those wanting to visit South Downs National Park, the historic town of Lewes and the nearby attractions of Brighton and Hove.
The site has opened initially with six 350kW HPC stations, with the ambition for the stations to be expanded to 12. The site is an example of the partnership between Cobra Coffee Ltd and Ionity that the two businesses are looking to develop together elsewhere in the South of England as sites become available. Ionity claims its chargers use 100% green energy from source to socket, making EV travel ”emission-free and truly carbon neutral”.
Andreas Atkins, Ionity’s country manager for the UK and Ireland, said: “Within the UK there are spots that are in desperate need of charging sites that enable long-distance travel with an EV, and Greater Brighton is one of them. Partnering with Cobra Coffee to bring a Starbucks alongside EV charging abilities is just one step in the right direction for our aspirations for the area. We are looking forward to building on this partnership and providing the whole of the UK with sufficient charging abilities that are convenient and speedy”.
Mark Smith, CEO of Cobra Coffee, said: “The local area is often described as a charging desert and we are delighted to play our part in decarbonising travel for those living in, visiting or travelling across the National Park. Ionity was a natural partner for us as the two businesses have a shared ambition to act now on climate change. This means we have been able to bring easy-to-use charging that is 100% renewable, fast and reliable. We look forward to welcoming EV charging and other road users to our newly refurbished coffee shop with a great Starbucks range of beverages and food, in a thoughtful re-working of an existing and well-known building. We are excited about the future potential opportunities from partnering with Ionity as we look for further sites together.”
Ionity Lewes & Lewes Starbucks are located on Old Brighton Road, Lewes.
Ionity is a joint venture of the car manufacturers BMW Group, Ford Motor Company, Hyundai Motor Group, Mercedes Benz AG and Volkswagen Group with Audi and Porsche, along with BlackRocks Climate Infrastructure Platform as financial investor. Its head office is in Munich, with additional offices in Dortmund and outside Norway’s capital Oslo.
