EV charger supplier Pod Point has rebranded as Pod, offering a new proposition as it shifts focus from chargers to providing charging services.
Pod has launched an EV charging subscription offer that offers cheaper hardware installation (£99, compared to the usual upfront £1,249 that Pod’s Solo 3S charger installation costs) and rewards cashback on up to 7,500 “smart charged” miles annually.
Customers who pay for the £40 monthly subscription to Pod Drive plug in as normal, allowing Pod to smart charge their vehicle to a set charge level by a specific time. Pod provides cashback of 2.3p per mile up to 7,500 miles per year—Pod claims this could provide drivers with up to £170 annually.
Pod CEO Melanie Lane said the company’s background in EV charging means Pod is “well placed to help households shift to clean energy in a way that also helps the UK’s electricity grid”.
She added: “Pod Drive is only the first of a number of everyday electrification propositions we are developing as we expand from providing chargers to helping busy households with all their charging needs.”
In the short term, Pod said it plans to deepen its existing partnership with Tesco to sync charging experiences across home and public charging points.
The company plans to unveil “multiple partnerships with major retailers and brands” as well.
EV subscriptions and supporting the grid
The announcement after Octopus Energy launched a subscription offer that gives drivers ‘unlimited’ charging for £30 per month. Called Intelligent Drive Pack, the subscription enables Octopus to schedule charging at times when electricity is in low demand and therefore cheaper on the wholesale market.
Through the tariff, 150,000 EV batteries are combined into virtual power plants (VPPs) through Octopus’ Kraken platform.
Octopus’ subscription scheme is compatible with just under 280 EV brands and chargers. By comparison, Pod’s new offer works with any energy provider and the Solo 3S charger is compatible with any EV.
In December last year, Pod (then Pod Point) partnered with EDF to incentivise customers to allow their EV to balance the grid through EDF’s VPP Powershift. Soon afterwards, Pod was the first company to sell energy into the wholesale market under new P415 regulations introduced by Elexon.
P415 allows companies that are not energy suppliers to sell wholesale energy as a virtual trading party (VTP). Doing so opened a revenue stream for Pod, which it can offer to customers as incentive to charge their EV at times that it benefits the electricity grid.
