A rural fuel station on the busy A40 at Churcham, near Gloucester, has asked planners if it can cater for electric car drivers by adding a rank of sockets to its retail offer.

The bid comes amid calls for more EV chargers across the county, with figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers this week showing one in every five new cars now purchased is electric.

While the rate of public charger introduction has accelerated (in the first half of 2022 an average of 891 charging devices were installed each month, a figure that has nearly doubled to 1,622 per month in the first six months of 2023) EV drivers say "range anxiety" issues from busy and often broken-down chargers persist.

The former Esso fuel stop at Churcham, now intended as a BP-managed site, currently has a fur-pump dispensing forecourt shop and sales and kiosk, together with a residential bungalow to the rear of the site. A large, open space to the side and rear of the main forecourt was previous used for car sales. 

Forest of Dean planners have been asked to approve a bay of six new chargers, together with replacement of an underground storage tank fitted in 1964, extension of the retail area and upgrading of the existing petrol and diesel distribution points.

Jaygar Architectural Design told planners: "The intent is to keep the building scale to a similar proportion with the building extension to be at a lower level."

Proposed alterations to the building frontage will, the architects say, allow access by the disabled, given current access to the shop is inhibited by two steps.

The addition of EV chargers for commuters heading in and out of Gloucester and using the A40 trunk road would come as welcome news: according to the latest data from Zap-Map, which guides EV drivers to the nearest charge point, the Churcham addition would plug a hole in the charging map, the nearest charge points being a BP Pulse-operated facility at the Lock Keepers, at Over Bridge, while the closest easterly chargers are four points operated by Instavolt at the Farmer's Boy Inn, near Mitcheldean.

The pace of charger intriduction may be accelerating, but the RAC says it is still too slow.

Simon Williams, spokesman, said: "While the government aims to have around 300,000 charge points in place by 2030, we are concerned that this is not going to be sufficient with drivers looking to switch to an electric vehicle ahead of the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars that year." 

The Department for Transport says that, as of April 1st 2023, there were 40,150 public electric vehicle charging devices installed in the UK, within which:

● 7,647 were rated "rapid" devices or above, which represents 19% of all charging devices.

● 22,338 were rated "fast" chargers, which equates to 56% of all charging devices.

Of these:

● 19,044 were designated as "destination" chargers, being 47% of all charging devices.

● 13,571 were designated as "on street" chargers, representing 34% of all charging devices.

Compared to January 1st 2023, the total installed devices increased by 3,095, which was an increase of 8%, while rapid charging or faster devices increased by 760, an increase of 11%.