Abundance Investment, a UK ethical investment crowdfunding platform, has launched an offer to fund the roll out of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure throughout the Greater Manchester area, with Iduna Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure.
Iduna is aiming to raise £4 million through an offer of 5-year secured debentures – regulated and tradable bonds – which pay 9% interest per year over the life of the investment to finance the installation of 50 new EV chargers in Greater Manchester, delivered in partnership with Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM).
A visible and accessible public charging network will be a major driver of the switch to electric driving, and one which will need to grow 20-fold in the next decade to keep pace with the expected arrival of more than 10 million EVs on our roads.
Greater Manchester has a strategy to be a carbon neutral region by 2038. As part of this, TfGM’s aim is that half of all journeys are made using public and active transport (walking and cycling) by 2040. Currently Greater Manchester residents make 1.2 billion car journeys every year, which must be reduced and decarbonised.
Availability of off street parking for home charging is low, so increasing the number of public chargers will be vital to achieving this goal. Greater Manchester currently lags behind the national average for EV adoption. The proceeds of the investment will fund 50 new fast or rapid public EV charge points at high-traffic locations across Greater Manchester, selected in partnership with TfGM to ensure maximum usage. The chargers will run on 100% renewable electricity supplied by Octopus Energy. This is the first phase of Iduna’s programme to build 160+ charging points in the city by the end of 2022.
Iduna Infrastructure Limited has acquired Amey Map Services which already delivers and manages public funded chargers on behalf of TfGM. These are operated under the brand Be.EV, an open network of pay-as-you-go chargers with an optional membership scheme. There are approximately 130 chargers currently in the network, making it the region’s largest provider of public charging capability. The new chargers funded by the investment will also be operated under the Be.EV brand, which Iduna aims to develop into a unified and market-leading network across Greater Manchester.
