THE UK's fastest ever public electric vehicle (EV) rapid charge point has been installed at a local petrol station.

EV motorists can now take advantage of Britain's first ever public 60kW charge point at the Shell Garage on Wakefield Road, Brighouse.

The new installation, less than a mile away from the M62, was implemented by Alfa Power and can charge up to four electric cars - even of varying types - at the same time.

Charging times depend on the size of a car's battery and the power of the charge point.

There are three main EV charging speeds: rapid, fast and slow.

Motorists usually come to a charge point with at least 10 per cent to 20 per cent battery capacity remaining as a minimum.

A Nissan Leaf has a 40kW battery.

A spokesperson for Alfa Power said: "If we work on the basis that the Nissan Leaf has 30 per cent battery, and the driver wants to charge it to 80 per cent, this would take 20 minutes."

If the Nissan Leaf had 0 per cent charge left, the new 60kW charger would get the vehicle to full battery in 40 minutes, according to the spokesperson.

Such charging speeds are a far cry from local fast chargers which can take close to two hours for a full battery.

Prior to this development, commercial charge points above 50kW were only accessible to specific car types.

Zap-Map, an electric car charging point directory, verified there were no other chargers on the network that exceeded 50kW that are also accessible to all EV drivers, according to an Alfa Power spokesperson.

For example the Supercharger network which offers rates of up to 120kW, can only be used exclusively by Tesla’s Model S and Model X.

Alfa Power’s Managing Director, Alex Hinchcliffe, said “We are proud and delighted to have installed the first commercial rapid charger accessible to any EV driver with specifications over and above the 50kW benchmark.”

The next nearest rapid charger, at Lidl in Brighouse, is 20 per cent less powerful.

That charge point has Type 2 (43kW), CHAdeMO (50kW) and CCS (50kW) connectors.

CHAdeMO connectors mainly serve Asian cars and CCS is the European counterpart - the new charge point at the Shell Garage accommodates for both.

Dr Nina Skorupska CBE FEI, Chief Executive of the Renewable Energy Association said: “It’s excellent to see this publicly accessible rapid charging infrastructure opening in the UK, hot on the heels of the Government’s successful Zero Emissions Vehicle Summit."

At the summit last month, the first of its kind, the UK government pledged £106 million to EV research and development.

Alfa Power is now hoping to install even more accessible, rapid charge points across the region and further afield to help facilitate the growing move to cleaner transportation.

This includes continually upgrading its charging points to meet the demands of the UK’s growing EV market, with next steps set to include the installation of 100kW chargers strategically positioned between major cities across the UK.