Electric vehicle (EV) charging company EVC has partnered with The Jockey Club, the UK’s largest commercial horseracing organisation, to provide clean, environmentally friendly horsepower through charging stations at 14 racecourses across the UK.
By the end of the year, EVC will install more than 100 fast-charging stations with an output of up to 150 kW at the Jockey Club locations.
The largest number of charging stations is expected to be at Sandown Park racecourse in Surrey. As demand increases, 42 charging stations will be available. Rapid charging stations are also set to be installed at Aintree and Cheltenham. New charging stations will be added alongside existing infrastructure at Epsom Downs, Haydock Park, Exeter and Newmarket Rowley Mile.
The new partnership aims to future-proof the Royal Charter-managed Jockey Club’s historic racecourse portfolio – some of which date back to the late 18th century – and support the operator’s commitment to become carbon neutral by 2027.
The update comes after EVC announced it had secured a £165 million investment from Denham Sustainable Infrastructure – an arm of global energy transition investment firm Denham Capital – in February 2023 to accelerate the deployment of up to 100,000 charge points in the UK. To date, the funding has enabled the installation of thousands of charge points in hospitality, leisure and retail venues, as well as workplaces and multi-occupancy properties.
EVC installs charging stations at The Jockey Club’s racecourses on a fully funded basis, carries out the installation and provides ongoing management and maintenance of the chargers at no cost to the Club.
“Horse racing is a sport with so much heritage and our partnership with EVC underlines our commitment to seeking innovations that enable us to future-proof our racecourses and achieve our net zero ambitions,” said Kirstin McEvoy, Sustainability Manager at the Jockey Club. “At the Jockey Club, sustainability goes hand in hand with our mission to preserve the heritage of our historic racecourses and this is an important step in our journey.
“By ensuring that all of our 14 locations have electric vehicle charging solutions and tripling the number of electric vehicle parking spaces available to our racegoers, we can charge even faster.”
91 of the 169 charging points to be installed are active sockets and 78 are passive sockets, so that additional chargers can easily be installed as demand increases.
Each location has different charging rates. Discounted rates are available through the EVC app. It also allows drivers to track charging sessions, access detailed analytics and stop their charging session remotely.
“Our mission at EVC has always been to develop one of the largest destination charging networks in the UK,” said Nick Bellamy, CEO at EVC. “By enabling fast and convenient electric vehicle charging at each of its iconic venues, The Jockey Club is enhancing its guest experience, strengthening its sustainability goals and appealing to a new generation of environmentally conscious racegoers and corporate hospitality clients.”
“However, this initiative goes beyond convenience for racing fans – it is a strategic investment in the future of mobility, particularly in locations such as the North West of England where there are currently few public charging points for electric vehicles.”
The announcement of the partnership between EVC and The Jockey Club comes after a generally optimistic new report from industry bodies ChargeUK and New AutoMotive last week confirmed that the rollout of charging stations in the UK is progressing apace.
According to the study, there are now over 930,000 charging stations in private homes, workplaces and public places in the UK. The network of electric vehicles is growing so quickly that a new charging station is being installed every 25 minutes.
At the same time, the rapidly increasing number of ultra-rapid and fast chargers means that the current charging infrastructure can provide enough power to power every electric vehicle in the UK 580 miles a day – that’s 25 times the average daily car journey and further than the distance between London and Aberdeen.
Just last week, TotalEnergies and SSE brought a new entrant into the increasingly competitive electric vehicle charging market in the UK and Ireland, aiming to achieve a 20 per cent market share over the next five years. British start-up Be.EV also completed a £55 million debt raise from NatWest and Germany’s KfW IPEX-Bank to expand its public charging network in the UK.
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