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First UK Superchargers - South Mimms

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Spotted today by Nikki Gordon Bloomfield :smile:

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Interestingly, having visited here, I recall there also being a nearby Chademo point, which is nearly always empty. Let's hope the Tesla one is filled with nice shiny examples :) - free marketing for Tesla.

If Top Gear ever get hold of a Tesla again (personally I think they'd review the Model S favourably - they always like to find disadvantages to sportscars) I'd hope they'd at least mention the fast charge capability.
 
I read this thread while hanging about at Heathrow, so naturally dropped in at South Mimms on the way home.

There are 4 EV spaces in a row to the right of the building - the two with existing Ecotricity points (one CHAdeMO, one type-2) on the right, and the two new stalls on the left.

I lifted the cover slightly on one of them - underneath was just the two steel posts without a cover or any wiring, but looking like the photos we have seen of first-stage supercharger constrution elsewhere.

Behind the CHAdeMO charger, I found a concrete pad with conduit presumably running to the two new stalls (excuse the rubbish photo - it was dark). Metal box looks like the existing electrical supply to the Ecotricity kit; the concrete pad looks just big enough for one Tesla Supercharger cabinet and nothing else.

So it looks like they are just running this one cabinet off the existing available power, rather than anything bigger with its own transformer/substation as the installations in the USA typically have.

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Not absolutely 100% confirmed as supercharger, but seems unlikely to be anything else.
 
Bear in mind, this could be a lot like the "prototype" superchargers seen in Gilroy initially: start small, measure demand, then scale up if necessary. The services provider may be unwilling to allow for additional land usage for a large transformer, for example. I wonder if it will be 135kW rated or something lower to cope with current supply capability.
 
Not to be negative. But how do you know this is actually a SC?

Well, we don't know for 100% sure, but 99.9%:
  • It's plainly some sort of new EV charging facility. The only build-outs announced are Ecotricity's CCS upgrade, and Tesla's superchargers.
  • The stalls look exactly like Tesla's stalls, with the two posts over which the shell will be installed later. Most CHAdeMO/CCS chargers have a bigger footprint (because they are self-contained and don't have the separate equipment cabinet).
  • The concrete pad nearby looks right for a supercharger cabinet, but is too small for a new substation if they had run out of existing power on site and has no other obvious purpose if this was for Ecotricity rather than Tesla.
  • The one stall for nose-in parking with the cable at the side, and one for tail-in with the cable at the back corner of the space is a configuration commonly adopted by Tesla. Non-tesla sites normally have the equipment in the middle of a nose-in space, like the other two spaces at this location.
  • Tesla have apparently told people that the first supercharger will be on the M25. This is a key M25 location.
 
Anyone have an update, now that the first UK deliveries have been made?
I believe the South Mimms deployment will not proceed following the Ecotricity legal action. At the launch event on Saturday Tesla confirmed The Crystal temporary SuperCharger would become permanent "in the near future".

More SuperCharger locations including some co-located with third parties are in the works :smile:
 
This whole spat with Ecotricity is extremely unfortunate. The question is though, does Ecotricity have an exclusivity agreement with the sites in question (I don't mean the claimed NDA), because if they do then that could be seen as anti-competitive.