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EV charging infrastructure issue
22 June 2022
The Association of Fleet Professionals (AFP) recently hosted its first annual member conference at The British Motor Museum 2022, with speakers covering topics related to electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure.
Amongst these speakers was our very own Sales Director, Richard Baird, who is also a Director and Company Secretary for the AFP.
At the event, Richard Baird discussed what he considers to be the four main issues related to EV charging infrastructure, based on his own experience as an EV-owner. They are:
- Geographical availability
- Quality – the amount of rapid chargers out there
- Reliability – broken charge points
- Ease of use – joined-up payment methods and reimbursement (an e-AFR rate at 5ppm versus real life highway rapid charging costs).
Supporting the discussion was a panel of experts made up of:
- Vice President of Strategy at Allstar, Tom Rowlands.
- Head of Sales at Appyway, Matt Terry.
- Technical Director for Zero Emissions Fleets at WSP, Chris Jackson.
- Transport Lead Consultant for Mitie Plan Zero, Matt Dale.
- BP UK’s Head of Sales for EV Hub, Alex Potts.
Allstar’s Tom Rowlands highlighted some of the challenges of EV charging from a fleet perspective, and how Allstar is working to resolve them. He pointed out that many fleet managers prefer to give their drivers fuel cards as opposed to a VISA product, but that Allstar are exploring the possibility of combining those products. He said, “We are looking at what we can do in terms of our VISA offering combined with our proprietary Allstar card to give that bigger access to the network.”
Highlighting the challenge of knowing how to pay at a charge point, Tom Rowlands explained, “You turn up to a charge point and it’s not necessarily clear how you pay – they don’t always have a payment terminal. Often it’s an RFID card or mobile app only”. He added, “I think the partnership that we’ve done with Zap Map is to try and, again, break down those barriers.”
BP representative Alex Potts spoke about the issue of reliability. He said, “With EV charging, you’ve got your fingers crossed when you pull up a lot of the time and that ‘it just works’ mentality probably isn’t there yet.” He added, “It needs to be if we’re going to support fleet. Creating that - what I call - ‘pull up, plug in’ experience is what we need to get to.”
Alex Potts added that BP are supporting fleet by creating dedicated B2B hubs to cut down waiting times. He said, “Our largest example is Q Park, Park Lane, where we’ve got 22, 50KW chargers. Some of those are dedicated purely to Uber drivers so that they can confidently pull up, plug in, get the charge they need, grab a coffee and get back on their way. And that’s something we’re looking to replicate up and down the UK in the coming years ”.
Matt Dale of Mitie also pointed out that, from an eLCV perspective, “it’s not only more expensive [to use a public charger] to charge than in a depot, or at home – it’s also an inconvenience if they’re having to wait - it’s a cost while they’re sitting in a queue waiting to charge a vehicle.”
Contract hire and fleet management
We at Marshall Leasing are always supportive of the AFP and we are keen to share the latest news about electric vehicles and the infrastructure needed to support the industry. If you would like to find out more about how we can help you make the transition to an electric vehicle, please get in touch with us at info@marshall-leasing.co.uk or by calling 01480 414541. Alternatively, please complete our contact form.
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