One of the biggest disincentives to owning an electric car in the United Kingdom has been the poor charging infrastructure at motorway service stations. Unless you are a Tesla owner, most of the faster chargers are to be found off the highway and involve an unwelcome detour.
Now, a man named after one of those service stations has mounted his white charger and is coming to the rescue of the hard-pressed EV aficionado. Mr Toddington Harper has taken over the existing Ecotricity charging network and is set to provide Tesla-style plazas at every station on the motorway network. Gridserve, his company, has already made a splash with several large non-motorway “Electric Forecourts”, trademark intended.
One for the taste buds
But where does Toddington come in? Drivers in the south of England will be familiar with the name and the location. The rest-stop lies between junctions 11 and 12 on the M1 motorway north of London. I’ve been a regular visitor since 1964 when it opened, although I have to say it has never been a pit-stop to tempt the taste buds. It’s more a needs-must-when-the-Devil-drives sort of spot, as are most similar places. But it must have worked wonders on Mum and Dad.
Inspiration
Toddington, in fact, is the second of the Harpers to be named after a motorway service station. When his elder brother was born, Mr & Mrs H couldn’t decide on a name. But, when they passed Heston Services on the M4 (another lacklustre hostelry as it happens), the penny dropped. Young Heston was named. It was but a short hop around the M25 to Toddington for inspiration when the next Harper was born.
I think it’s a wonderful story and demonstrates honest-to-goodness inspiration. All those stuffy old Toms, Dicks and Harrys are just too boring. I wish I’d been called Charnock Richard Evans, although motorways didn’t exist when I was born. I would probably have had to settle for Transport Caff Evans.
One can assume that both Toddington and Heston have dined out on this story most of their lives. And good luck to them, although I hope they didn’t dine at either of their eponymous watering holes, for there are limits to human endurance.
Gridserve’s fast chargers, speeding along at up to 350 kWh, will bring real change to the places where most people want to top up—at a service station attached to the motorway, not five miles away down a country lane and stuffed behind an industrial estate. Gridserve also promises ease of use, with a swiped credit card instead of the egregious proprietary RFID cards and smartphone apps that currently plague drivers.
Todding up the car
In time, perhaps, Tod (if I may be so bold) will take a leaf from Tesla’s book and make charging really easy—plug and go with the pump recognising your car and charging your account automatically.
I do hope Mr Harper meets his target of converting all the tired old Ecotricity charge points by September. If he does achieve this, it will represent a sea change for the national infrastructure. But with a name like Toddington, he’s off to a flying start and I have full confidence.
Today, in celebration of this remarkable man and his new network, I’m going off tod up my car at Toddington and grab a few shots for this article. I might even force myself on a sausage roll. The things I do for Macfilos readers…
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Firstly it is about time someone sorted out our EV infrastructure, after all we are going to need it.
Just need to improve the battery technology – but that is coming too.
If I was Toddington, I’d be grateful my parents had not got stuck at Birchanger. Although his mates would have sure callled him Birchy, had that been in the case.
And finally if you need an EV laugh, there is a YouTube channel with a chap who fitted a Tesla engine and battery system to his 1974 VW westfalia camper. It literally goes like a rocket for about 80-100 miles and that’s it.
Ah, ‘salutey’ men. We loved waving at them as kids. My father always had an AA badge and always got a salute. On your main theme, I am still trying to figure out whether the Barack Obama Plaza, in Moneygall, County Offaly, has charging points. It has almost everything else, which you can see if you ‘google’ it and look at its website. Its is a ‘palace’ among service stations. It is amusing how almost every US President finds a distant cousin somewhere in Ireland which he (no ‘shes’ so far) visits the year before re-election is due, all except the last fella who had Scottish blood or so he said. Speaking of Service Station names, does anyone know why the Birch Services site was so named? A Borstal near by?
The best service station I ever dined in was near Bologna in Italy. Real haute cuisine, white table cloths and a wine license in a restaurant that spanned the autostrada. Travelling on the major roads in Italy was always an interesting experience. You were likely to be passed at 120kph by a nun driving a Fiat Bambino while saying her rosary. I bet they have will have all of the charging points figured out when they move over to Electric Bambinos. There is an idea in there somewhere about resolving the charging point issue.
William
William does that mean (similar to Toddington Harper) that the ex president of USA is named after a motorway service station in Offaly ?
Apparently he has asked his Russian friend to lobby Boris about a service station in Peasedown, just south of Bath.
I believe the President pre-dated the Plaza which was built near Moneygall where some of his ancestors came from. I was away in the Middle East when the President came to visit Ireland, but I believe the Plaza was completed after his visit was over. There is the obligatory statue in Moneygall. He also had the obligatory pint of Guinness which we force on significant visitors . Queen Elizabeth got a pass when she visited the Guinness Brewery, but the late Prince Philip stood in manfully for her. There are no plans to name a service station after the Queen. Joe Biden could be a contender, though.
William
William,
“..does anyone know why the Birch Services site was so named?..” ..the areas nearby are called Birch, Bowlee, Pilsworth, Unsworth, etc. (I once stayed at the Birch Services Travelodge when travelling to Manchester – from Peterborough? – to visit my parents. It’s pretty nondescript. The M62 motorway – on which Birch Services stands – has great views – and underfloor central heating, to stop winter snow freezing to ice – and is (..I think..) the only motorway to split its carriageways to pass either side of a farmhouse “in the middle of the road” which the owner, supposedly, refused to sell to the Ministry of Transport. It’s turned out, though, that the motorway was built around the farmhouse to avoid a sloping fault line.)
As you travel further onwards to Manchester the M62 splits into what seems like *dozens* of other mini-motorways veering off towards Stockport and South Manchester, Liverpool, all points North – and if you miss your exit it’s far, far worse than Birmingham’s ‘Spaghetti Junction’ ..you can easily end up in Chester or even Wales!
Travelling the other way’s simpler – it goes straight towards Hull. So the M62 straddles the country, from the coast at Liverpool in the west – for ferries to Ireland! ..well, there used to be; I assume there still are (..I remember getting a ferry from Liverpool to Dublin back in about 1966, maybe..) to the coast at Hull in the east (..where, I believe, my grandparents landed from Odessa, many, many, many years ago).
Thanks David. I first became acquainted with the M6/M62 when my older daughter went to College in Hull in the 1990s. Going the other way I would always be looking for Chester and North Wales. My daughter later attended the College of Law in Chester and for us it was a blessed relief that we did not have to go any further. My most recent, and probably my last, venture into those parts was when coming back from the Leica Society AGM in Lincoln in 2015 it took me 7 or 8 hours on those roads to get from Lincoln to Holyhead as there were at least 3 serious traffic accidents, including a truck blocking nearly 3 or 4 lanes near to Chester. Going around by Birch was a 15mph crawl, but I still had to go in to ‘use the facilities’. I nearly got done by the North Wales Police on Anglesey. I never break speed limits (except for this time as I thought I would miss my ferry), but these chaps noticed that I had slowed down and also my Irish reg. I made my boat with about 5 minutes to spare. Driving in Great Britain is probably a thing of past for me unless I can hire a car for an airport near to where I am going. Northern Ireland is fine as we can just drive through and that will continue in both directions.
William
MACFILOS, VAUDEVILLE REVIVAL SHOW!
It’s nice to see someone giving plug to the hard-working folks who grew up in good ohms, who are trying to improve the charging network, no doubt meeting a great deal of resistance in the process, when in fact they deserve amp-le reward and recognition.
Nurse has told me it’s time to come in for my meds…
Is this a volte face on your part?
Yes, it’s shows how Far-aday from my cage I can travel before having to reverse and become Fleming ambidextrous!
David B , Charlton Heston used to race chariots in Coliseums. Saw it at the movies, and I think except for major population centers the EV is going the way of Chariots. I think kids hoverboards have more of a chance for survival.
You certainly know how to tell a story. I got a real charge out of this one. Certainly readily available fast charging stations are critical to convenient electric car use.
Thanks Brian. Coincidentally, Mr Toddington Harper seems to have hit road works this morning. The competitions watchdog has announced an investigation of the relationship between some motorway service stations and the “Electric Highway”. I’ve always wondered who other providers had not set up shop at rest stops. Could be more to follow… as you say, without charging, EVs are going nowhere. Musk has many faults, but he got that one right from the off.
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Wasn’t Heston Chieveley a character in Hinge & Bracket’s radio shows? (And Charlton Heston sounds like a couple of service stations.)
I’m sure I bumped into Leigh Delamere the other day in Waitrose, or was it Sainsbury’s? Maybe your chap Teddington Harper was named after the most recent of the Beckhams’ children; Harper Seven. But how about that Getty (grand)child: Tara Gabriel Galaxy Gramophone Getty, son of John Paul Getty II? ..now there’s adventurousness!
Two service stations short of a picnic.
Eh-up, when I were a lad (..before motorways or service stations..) you’d see families, newly disembarked from a motorbike with sidecar, picnicking by t’side of t’road in t’lay-by, joyfully breathing in all the exhaust from assorted cars and lorries while watching the Smiths Crisps vans go by, with their slogan “We wish to extend to you the courtesy of the road, please sound your horn when passing” ..that’s when the yellow AA patrolmen would salute you as they passed by on their motorcycle combinations ..eeeh, them were’t days..!