(Reuters) -Dutch charging infrastructure company Fastned has teamed up with Tesla to build electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in Oxford, England, it said on Friday, sending its shares higher.
The hub of 38 charging stations, will include 26 ultra-rapid chargers from Fastned and Tesla, with additional AC chargers from Spain’s Wenea, and is scheduled to open at the end of 2021.
The intial 10 Fastned charging stations will be able to charge EVs simultaneously at rates allowing drivers to add up to 300 miles (482.8 km) of range in 20 minutes, the company said.
Fastned shares rose almost 8% to 55.6 euros at 0837 GMT.
“Partnering with Tesla … should indeed help (Fastned) further increase its public profile in the UK and may allow it to replicate the same development strategy in other municipalities across Europe,” Berenberg’s research analyst Jan Richard said.
The hub will be Europe’s most powerful electric vehicle charging hub with up to 10 megawatts of power available for future expansion, Fastned said.
“We can assume (this site) will be an important revenue contributor,” Juri Zanieri, research analyst at Kempen, said.
Delivering 100% renewable energy to EV drivers day and night, it will also be the Britain’s largest public EV charging hub, EDF Renewables, whose unit Pivot Power is also participating in the project, said https://www.edfenergy.com/media-centre/news-releases/europes-most-powerful-electric-vehicle-charging-hub-heading-oxford.
Located on the ring road around Oxford, the hub is near the Cowley industrial site, where BMW is producing electric MINI cars.
Fastned, based in Amsterdam, has built 137 fast charging stations across the Belgium, Britain, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands and aims to expand into France.
It plans to build at least 40 stations across its markets in 2021 and increase the number substantially in 2022.
Last month, data from Britain’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders showed battery EVs and plug-in hybrid vehicles’ market share grew to 13.9% over January-March.
(Reporting by Piotr Lipinski in Gdansk; editing by Barbara Lewis)
