Last updated on September 3rd, 2022 at 10:10 pm
Osprey Charging has launched its latest Super Fast Charging Hub at the Paisley Pear Pub in Brackley. The town in Northamptonshire sits where the busy A43 meets the A422, with the A421 not far off either. It’s also not too great a distance from the M40 motorway. So it’s in a great location, and there are plenty of facilities for charger users as well. WhichEV talked to Osprey Charging CEO Ian Johnston at the launch about the new location, Osprey’s plans for rolling out further Hubs, and the current problems with the Energy Crisis.
Like the Banbury hub we featured in our piece on charging with a disability, the new Paisley Pair location uses Kempower rapid chargers and device positioning that is more user-friendly for every kind of visitor. The charging cables are on a gantry, which carries most of the weight. This makes it easy to move the cable over to the car to the most convenient location even if you have reduced abilities, and also means you should be able to reach your charging port even if you park your car at the device the wrong way round.
Also, like Banbury, the eight chargers at the Paisley Pear employ load balancing. The substation, installed by ESP Utilities Group Ltd, can provide up to 800kW in total, and each charger can deliver up to 150kW. So if all eight cars are asking for over 100kW, they will be limited to 100kW apiece, but if only one requires 150kW and the others less, it will receive the full power. The rate will change dynamically so as a car draws less wattage others can receive the balance as requested. We saw this work in practice in Banbury, where the rates increased for other chargers when a Porsche Taycan had completed its charge.
All the chargers accept contactless payment with a credit card, plus network cards such as Octopus Electric Juice and Zap-Pay. They also offer both CCS and CHadeMO connections on all units. When you have a charge in progress, you can scan a QR code on the unit’s LCD panel to see a live view of the charge in progress in a Web browser on your phone, which is incredibly useful during your trip to the local amenities as your car replenishes its battery. The Osprey app can also provide a similar facility if you used this to initiate the charge.
There are some pleasant facilities to while away the minutes as your car refills, too. The Paisley Pear has a large restaurant serving typical pub fare, but there’s also a nearby Costa for less formal (or alcoholic) sustenance. The Paisley Pear is a Marsten’s pub, a chain with which Osprey Charging has an existing relationship. There are Osprey chargers at other Marsten locations, and in fact the Paisley Pear already had a couple of legacy 50kW units from Osprey, which will continue to exist. These also offer AC charging, so can cater for Plug-in Hybrid EVs as well as. Osprey is aiming to roll out AC destination chargers at hotel locations including the Paisley Pear, too, so visitors can obtain an overnight charge.
Johnston told us that with the launch of the Paisley Pear facility, Osprey Charging is up to 325 locations and has a roadmap to hit 600 by the end of the year, then a total of 1,200 by the end of 2023. The CEO claimed the company would continue to double its footprint each year. We also discussed the pricing of public charging, which has increased along with the energy crisis, but he expects to drop again eventually. He expects public charging to hit £1 per kWh by the end of the year.
One of the factors many people cite as a concern they have with switching to an EV is public charging. From our experience, and according to Zap-Map’s annual survey, Osprey is one of the most reliable networks out there. With the roadmap the company has, and the quality of these new Kempower devices, the future looks bright for UK public charging infrastructure, even if the country has some tough economic times ahead in the short term.