Little Chef takes the lead with the biggest roll out of electric vehicle charging points of their type worldwide

05 Oct 2011

Little Chef, the iconic and innovative chain of restaurants, is rolling out high technology electric vehicle (ev) charging points across its UK estate. This will be the biggest deployment of charging points by any restaurant chain worldwide. The project is being carried out in partnership with SSE, the leading generator of renewable energy and Chargemaster Plc, Europe’s most innovative provider of charging technology.

Initially the roll out will see the installation of 126 charging points in Little Chef restaurant car parks by the spring of 2012 - the next phase will be working with its strategic partners to connect the remainder of the Little Chef estate. This will mean that 90% of the UK will be no further than 30 miles from a Little Chef equipped with an ev charging point. The vision is for every Little Chef to have an ev charging point by the end of 2012.

Little Chef’s estate is strategically located on Britain’s A road network across the UK and the new facility will allow fast charging of up to 7 kW allowing electric motorists to top their electric car up whilst enjoying a hot meal or something from the new Good to Go range at their destination.

There is an increasing number of electric cars on the country’s roads and over the next three years major motor manufacturers including Vauxhall, Ford, Renault, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes and Toyota will have plug in cars on the market. By the end of this decade it is widely forecast that one in ten new cars will be electric. Little Chef is the first national restaurant chain to recognise the need to provide roadside ev charging facilities to service the requirements of this growing band of ‘electric’ motorists.

The service will be provided free of charge*, courtesy of Little Chef and SSE for the first year, and the high technology Chargemaster units will be supplied with electricity by SSE, the leading generator of renewable energy across the UK and Ireland.

Little Chef’s Managing Director, Tracey Mulligan comments: “This represents an important stage in the brand development of Little Chef, we recently launched a completely new brand identity and introduced a top quality grab and go food offering, designed for today’s motorist. Our approach to ethical sourcing of our food is absolutely in line with offering electric car charging points. This is just the first phase, we want every Little Chef to offer this service for motorists and are working with the best in the market place, Chargemaster and SSE to deliver this.”

David Densley, Head of Sustainable Transport for SSE said: “We’re very pleased to be involved in this major project as we are committed to improving the network of electric vehicle charging points throughout the UK. We also hope it will spark people’s interest in electric transport and the environmental benefits it could bring in the future.”

Norman Baker, Transport Minister said: “I welcome this big thinking from Little Chef, giving a taste of the future in the move towards a first class national recharging network for plug-in cars. The Government has provided £30m of funding for electric car charging infrastructure through the Plugged-In Places programme in cities and regions across the UK. This private-sector-led initiative is just the kind of ingredient we need to drive the development of our national network of recharging infrastructure. It is great to see another example of UK enterprise coming forward to make the most of the opportunity”.

David Martell, CEO at Chargemaster comments: “It’s exciting to be working alongside Little Chef and SSE to provide this service to Little Chef customers. Undoubtedly Little Chef is leading the way in providing roadside services to the modern motorist and we are delighted that have identified the growing need to specifically cater for the growing number of electric motorists”


*Free - The charging facilities will be provided for free until December 2012