BP Chargemaster has installed two 150 kilowatt (kW) ultra-fast chargers at a BP site near Heathrow Airport, London.
In an announcement Thursday, oil giant BP – which acquired the business, formerly known as Chargemaster, in 2018 – said it planned to install 400 ultra-fast chargers at BP locations by the end of 2021.
BP Chargemaster says it operates the largest public charging network in the U.K., connecting more than 7,000 charging points. In June, the firm said it expected the 150 kW charger to provide roughly 100 miles of range in 10 minutes.
"BP's forecourts are ideal locations for this technology, which will provide an expected dwell time of 10-12 minutes, not dissimilar from the average of around seven minutes spent by drivers of petrol and diesel cars on a forecourt today," BP Chargemaster's chief operating officer, David Newton, said in a statement Thursday.
As more people start to drive electric vehicles over longer distances, the need for a large-scale charging network will become increasingly pressing.
Earlier this week, the U.K.'s Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, announced an extra £2.5 million ($3.03 million) of funding for charging points on residential streets.
"It's vital that electric vehicle drivers feel confident about the availability of chargepoints near their homes, and that charging an electric car is seen as easy as plugging in a smartphone," Shapps said Monday.
