Pod Point has unveiled a new partnership with Australian electric vehicle (EV) charger manufacturer Tritium.
It has signed a preferred supplier agreement with the manufacturer, with plans to offer the Veefil-RT 50kW DC rapid charger to both new and existing Pod Point customers as it continues its rollout in the UK.
Tritium was chosen due to the reliability of its chargers, as well as the speed of installation and unique design, it said, enabling Pod Point to offer selected customers the ability to add their own branding to the chargers, as well as the chargers’ small physical footprint.
“DC fast charging is a key part of the UK charger mix, especially for drivers who need to re-charge quickly on long journeys or in emergencies, and for commercial vehicles that can’t top-up charge because they don’t park often,” Pod Point’s CEO and founder, Erik Fairbairn, said.
“EV adoption is accelerating rapidly in the UK and we’re making sure the charging infrastructure is in place to sustain the awesome growth trend that we’re seeing.”
Pod Point – which first started in 2009 – has manufactured and sold over 69,000 charging points across its two markets, the UK and Norway.
It was recently acquired by Big Six utility EDF Energy, and has signed a number of partnerships, including to be Groupe PSA’s sole charge point supplier, as well as supplying chargers to Mitie.
It has also partnered Volkswagen and Tesco to roll out 2,400 chargers at the supermarket’s sites.
Tritium, meanwhile, was chosen to provide chargers for new charge point operator Drive Energi, which announced in July 2019 that it plans on installing 2,500 chargers in the UK by 2025.
Kevin Pugh, country manager for the UK and Ireland at Tritium, pointed to the government’s consultation on bringing the ICE phase-out forward to 2035 as evidence of EVs becoming the norm “sooner rather than later”, adding that Pod Point’s rollout will be key to ensuring drivers can charge whenever needed.
“However, not everyone in the UK has access to off-street parking, and as such drivers aren’t always able to recharge at home and overnight. This needs to be addressed with publicly available, reliable and plentiful charging infrastructure, and one of Tritium’s core goals is to make EV charging more convenient than re-fuelling,” he added.
Pugh also highlighted how Tritium’s chargers are fitted with contactless credit card readers as the government moves to ensure all public chargers provide ‘pay as you go’ credit or debit card payment options.
Pod Point was one of three charge point operators to be urged towards greater interoperability through roaming agreements by then-chair of the APPG on EVs Matt Western, however the operator hit back at the letter, pointing to its contactless capabilities and free charging on the majority of AC chargers.
