Fastned to deliver France’s first electric-only motorway services
The messaging from Fastned suggests this is the first electric equivalent of a large motorway services, a ‘pioneering project’ combining both recharging with shopping / refreshments – much in the same way that existing service stations offer refuelling and refreshments to combustion engine vehicles.
Indeed, the new charging hub will be located on France’s Route National 165, part of Europe’s E60 highway network, placing it along a main transport artery in western France. However, it’s not quite as large as Fastned suggests. While there is a shop, bathrooms, and a garden at the St Yvi site, it’s worth noting that the actual charging infrastructure it offers is more typical of a regular charging hub: six 400kW fast chargers, plus one adapted for electric trucks, each utilising Fastned’s signature solar canopy.
That makes it much smaller than the company’s earlier ‘service area of the future’; its two flagship hubs on the E17 motorway Belgium, which both feature sixteen 400kW chargers, two additional truck chargers, a restaurant, 24/7 self-service shop, family play area, showers and toilets.
Nevertheless, it’s a significant addition to Fastned’s other 50 charging hubs across France. Michiel Langezaal, Fastned CEO and cofounder, said of the new charging hub: “This tender win shows our ambition to bring the service area of the future to France, and further all over Europe, and to give every driver the best charging experience possible with 100% renewable energy.”
0 Comments