EDF has acquired a majority stake in UK electric vehicle firm Pod Point. Under terms of the transaction, Legal & General, which held a 13 per cent stake in the company, will increases its share to 23 per cent.
Pod Point has one of the UK’s largest charging networks, with customers including Tesco and Lidl.
CEO and founder, Erik Fairbairn, said selling to EDF means “we can take things to the next level and accelerate our national roll out of charging points and make it even easier for drivers across the UK to go electric.”
Fairbairn told The Energyst last month that the UK is approaching an electric vehicle tipping point. He believes 2020 will deliver “stratospheric growth” in EV car sales.
The deal has been months in the making and marks a significant milestone in EDF’s push to become a leader in e-mobility.
While parts of the power industry, including National Grid, believe UK infrastructure can handle an EV boom without a significant increase in generation capacity, EDF’s UK CEO Simone Rossi, offered a different view.
“The additional electricity demand from EVs will require urgent investment in low carbon generation from renewables and nuclear,” he stated.
Details here.
Free B2B electric vehicles and charging infrastructure event
Speakers from EDF and Pod Point are among a host of experts taking part in panel sessions at The Energyst’s EV Event, 22-23 April, Silverstone. The business-to-business conference and exhibition is free to attend and delegates can drive electric vehicles from Jaguar Land Rover, and hopefully one or two other major OEMs, around the track.
Confirmed speakers and sponsors include:
Arup | Arrival | Arval | Birmingham Airport | BP Chargemaster | BT | Bristol City Council | Cenex | Connected Energy | EDF | Engenie | Gnewt | Jaguar Land Rover | Liberty Global | Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership | Mitie | National Grid | Nottingham City Council | Nuvve | Octopus | Pod Point | Royal Mail | UK Power Networks | UPS | Total | Volvo | Western Power Distribution and more.
Register here.
Related stories:
Pod Point close to EDF deal, boss predicts bumper year for EV growth
EV boom no sweat, says National Grid
Legal & General takes 13 per cent stake in Pod Point
The new milk wars: Lidl undercuts Tesco on rapid charging
Tesco plans major EV charging push
Do EV charge points require a supply licence? Maybe, says Ofgem
EV boom no sweat, says National Grid
Mitie: Bigger electric vans required to decarbonise UK fleet
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What a surprise…EDF saying EV charging will need new nuclear! And what rubbish! If anything EV needs more flexible gen to meet charging peaks – not big slabs of baseload
EDF is right that EV charging points will require the nuclear option, but that’s only so far for EV’s. Assuming that all the UK’s energy needs must be supplied by zero carbon electricity by 2050 (which is another and important discussion) then if you look at the stats at BEIS and work out how much new zero carbon electricity will be needed (2,234 TWh in 2018), then it works out at at least 60 new nuclear power stations like Hinkley Point C (3.2 GWh) running flat out 24/7 365 days a year [unlikely]. Problem is that this type is expensive and take a long time to build because they are based on nuclear engineering that is at least 40 years old, using large high pressure reactors consuming uranium, instead of molten salt cooled thorium reactors which can be built as small modular reactors (SMRs) can be mass produced in a factory and shipped to site on the back of a heavy trailer. Rolls Royce is already developing such concept SMRs which can also be used to retrofit existing fossil fuel power stations, saving the cost of all the generating equipment and power distribution.