UK hotels to house electric car charging stations

Hotels across the UK will be installing electric car charging stations on their premises, with the aim of attracting motorists to use their facilities while cars are charging.

Over ten hotels and tourist resorts have partnered with Tesla, a US carmaker, to install the stations, which will all be privately owned but will be available for public use, either free of charge or for a small fee.

Tesla aims to create a charging network across the UK to promote the use of electric cars, and said that the “forward thinking” hotels it has partnered with will benefit from extra business as motorists “conveniently recharge while having a meal, using leisure facilities, or indulging in an overnight stay”.

Charging car batteries would take anything up to three hours, said Tesla.

The hotels and resorts that have partnered with the scheme are:

  • John o'Groats Guesthouse, Caithness, Scotland
  • Macdonald Aviemore Highland Resort, Scotland
  • Dalmahoy, a Marriott Hotel and Country Club, Kirknewton, Scotland
  • Radisson Blu Hotel, Durham, England
  • The Nottingham Belfry - Q Hotels, England
  • The Arden Hotel and Leisure Club, Bickenhill, Solihull, England
  • The Castle Hotel at Taunton, Somerset, England
  • Land's End Hotel, Cornwall, England
  • Heathrow/Windsor Marriott Hotel, England
  • The Moat House Hotel at Acton Trussell, England
  • Ashford International Hotel, Kent, England

Another hotel charging station will also be installed in an as yet unnamed resort in South Wales.

"After crossing the country on a single charge in a Tesla Roadster, I realised that national coverage would require surprisingly few charge stations," said the firm’s David Peilow.

"I worked out the minimum number of sites for all of Britain to be reached, and found locations where drivers would be keen to stop and recharge. Once the benefits of hosting an EV charger were explained, most sites jumped at the chance to have one."