Case Study: Mer Provides Ultra-Rapid EV Charging for Gateway Cafe

The Client

Gateway Café is located in South Cerney, just off the A419 and opposite the Cotswold Water Park. Situated within beautiful surroundings for walkers, cyclists, bird watchers, and families alike to enjoy, the Café serves locally sourced food and drink daily and can be hired for private events and functions. Vistors can also enjoy pizza from Pizzaria 720, and the Gateway Ice Rink is a popular festive attraction in the winter months.

Gateway Café is run by Relish Group, one of the UK’s leading event caterers. Relish provide catering services for charity galas, cultural festivals, corporate dinner parties, weddings, and more.

Offering EV charging stations demonstrates Relish Group’s commitment to sustainability. It is working towards having a sustainable site at Gateway Café with the introduction of solar panels and off-setting its carbon emissions through planting trees. The Group also recognised that as EVs become more common, having charging facilities will likely become a standard expectation, positioning the Café favourably for future trends. Furthermore, EV owners seeking charging infrastructure are likely to patronise the café while their vehicle charges, bringing in a new customer base.

The Solution

In April 2023, Mer brought two ultra-rapid Satellite charge points and one fast Alfen charge point to the Café. The site became Mer’s first Kempower hub in the UK and provides high-powered charging for visitors to the Café served by 100% renewable, zero carbon electricity.

The ultra-rapid charge points, which offer maximum charging of 200kW, feature dynamic load balancing, which actively allocates power across up to four EVs simultaneously. This not only improves the charging experience for drivers by increasing the peak charging speed per socket, but also enables more efficient use of the power available at the site.

As part of our customer-centric focus and mission to ensure an excellent user experience, Mer’s chargers have interactive touchscreens and contactless payment, and are situated within wide bays. This makes the charging process as seamless as possible.

The AC charge point accommodates drivers who are spending more time at the Café and therefore have time for a slower charge, as well as those who are unable to use the Combined Charging System (CCS) connectors.

In total the amount of EV miles charged by the public since launch at The Gateway Café is enough to drive round the equator 36 times. The amount of CO2 emissions prevented by our chargers at the Café is equivalent to over 32 acres of woodland.