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Fleet leasing provider Novuna Vehicle Solutions is planning to open an electric vehicle (EV) charging forecourt for cars and vans - a first for the UK’s contract hire and leasing industry.

Novuna Vehicle Solutions manages over 140,000 vehicles across the UK and Europe, ranging from cars and vans to HGVs and specialised assets. It has a target to fully electrify its entire car and small van fleet by 2030.

The new installation will be used to give fleet managers first hand experience of the range of charging hardware Novuna Vehicle Solutions can offer for fleets at their own depots.

The charging infrastructure at the company's Trowbridge centre will feature 12 AC charging bays that can deliver up to 22 kW of power to fully charge an average EV with a 50 kWh battery equipped with a 11 kW onboard charger in under five hours.

A separate parking area on site with four DC rapid charging bays will deliver up to 100kW of power to fully charge a vehicle in under one hour, subject to state of charge, temperature, onboard charger and power available.

Electricity at the forecourt, which will enable 16 electric vehicles to be charged simultaneously, will be generated from a solar canopy over the 12 AC bays combined with a grid connection, enabling an estimated 70% of the energy consumed for employee charging to be sourced from Novuna’s own renewable generation.

A 180 kWh battery storage facility onsite equipped with an energy management system will enable storage of unused solar generated energy, allowing the use of peak-saving trickle charging, delivering lower Co2 emissions.

Construction will start this month with completion of the site expected later this year. The installation will be built with lower Co2 concrete and equipmen and will feature parking bays for cars and vans, and will also offer accessibility bays.

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A key element of the installation will include the introduction of a charge point management system and associated driver app, My Novuna Charging, enabling Novuna Vehicle Solutions to manage both its own charging network and its customer’s charge points.

The system, which will also grant fleet drivers access to other corporate, private and public networks in the near future, provides a real time view of charging events and energy consumption alongside remote hardware maintenance for fleets.

The company said the flagship installation demonstrates its ambition to support fleets' transition to battery electric vehicles, whilst serving as a charging facility for Novuna Vehicle Solutions’ employees in Trowbridge.

Jon Lawes, Novuna MD, said: “We are very excited to unveil plans for our upcoming sustainable state of the art EV forecourt at one of our own sites which will encompass the full spectrum of innovative charging solutions we can provide to fleets of all sizes and complexities.

“The combination of both AC and DC charging, paired with solar energy generation and battery storage, serves as both a marker to our commitment to carbon neutrality and demonstrates the comprehensive support we can offer fleet customers right across the EV charging ecosystem helping them to achieve their net zero ambitions.

“This charging forecourt in Trowbridge will, for the first time, truly showcase the breadth of our unique end-to-end modular charging capability and demonstrate first-hand the energy management solutions we can offer to fleet customers as a fully-fledged electrification partner in order to future proof their operations.

He added: “We’ll imminently put shovels in the ground to deliver this pioneering project and we’re looking forward to bringing our decarbonisation proposition to life at our Trowbridge site so fleets can see the full suite of intelligent charge point solutions for themselves.”

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