Planning permission has been granted for a £25m large-scale battery and electric vehicle (EV) super charging hub in the north of England, close to the M6.

Pivot Power has been given the go-ahead for a 50 megawatt battery, with the hub scheduled to open in Carlisle in October 2019, according to chief technology officer Michael Clark.

The Carlisle site is the second hub announced by the company, which unveiled plans in May to build a £1.6bn network across Britain.

It said it would develop the world’s largest network of rapid charging stations with 45 large-scale battery and EV charging sites within the next five years.

It is already developing a similar site near Southampton.

With electric vehicles currently only making up only a small fraction of the vehicles on Britain’s roads, Clark said he expected the majority of revenues to initially come from electricity balancing services which the batteries will provide to the National Grid.

“It is important for us not to rely on retail customers initially. The batteries will be earning their keep from day one,” Clark said.