Scoop: BT pulls plug on EV charger rollout
The FTSE 100 company is 'shifting focus' after testing just one charger in Scotland
Hello, I’m Tom Riley, and welcome to The Fast Charge, a British EV newsletter.
Top story today… BT Group has thrown in the towel on installing EV chargers after only managing to put just one in the ground. Quite far from their mooted plans for converting 60,000 street cabinets last year!
Elsewhere… Better shock absorbers may lower EV fire risks, lessons from Norway’s success (revised), plus, Steallantis reveals they did hit the ZEV mandate last year.
Finally, if you ever have any comments or feedback, please do get in touch by replying to this email or using the links below.
Revealed: BT Group ends pilot turning green boxes into chargers
Summary: One year after BT Group announced grand plans to convert up to 60,000 old green street cabinets into public EV chargers, I can exclusively reveal that the FTSE 100 has shifted away from those plans to focus on “Wi-Fi connectivity” instead.
Context… Back in July 2023, BT shared news that its start-up and digital incubation team, Etc., would, over the next two years, “conduct technical and commercial pilots to convert or upgrade its street cabinets” to become EV charge points. The cabinets they refer to are those green ones you tend to see on every road in the country. At present, you’ll often see them with half a man with half his backside falling out of it as they convert more postcodes to fibre.
BT’s big idea was that… as they upgraded or decommissioned their tens of thousands of UK cabinets, their engineers could install a device that enables renewable energy to be shared to a charge point alongside the existing broadband service without creating a new power connection. This would provide a nifty on-street charging solution.
As January of 2024 arrived… BT revealed plans to convert “up to 60,000 street cabinets” across the UK, with their first charger set for installation in Scotland “within weeks”. At the time, Etc.’s Managing Director said: “Our new charging solution is a huge step in bringing EV charging kerbside.”
After a few months… BT launched their first EV charger in May last year in East Lothian. Alongside the picture of the first pilot site, BT also announced that “the pilot will focus next on West Yorkshire, with ambitions to scale up to 600 trial sites across the UK.”
*Scoop*… I can reveal that BT’s charge point plans have been quietly shifted, and BT has not progressed with any further installations of this charging solution. Their first one (above) will be the only one, and I understand BT is working with East Lothian Council to have it removed in February.
At present… that single charger installed at Monkmains Road in Scotland does not appear on any public charging maps like Zapmap. And on BT’s own roaming app (called evve) - which I only found by scanning a QR code on a press image - it appears to be offline and out of order.
*Scoop 2*… This morning - perhaps knowing my story was coming out today - BT Group has emailed all users of ‘evve’ to announce the EV charger app and the pilot will “cease operations” on the 14 of February. No love lost, literally!
Where next? Clearly, there is still a lot BT can offer the EV sector. For example, only in the last week, the company made a huge purchase of 3,500 new EVs - which will go far to help the wider story and its decarbonisation. However, for charging specifically, I’m told the focus will now shift to tackling connectivity problems that many drivers face at chargers. This is surely more in BT’s wheelhouse with its public Wi-Fi in operation at millions of spots across the UK already.
A BT Group spokesperson told The Fast Charge earlier this week: “Our EV charging trials have focussed on how we might help address the charging needs EV drivers face across the UK. By adopting a pilot process we have been able to test and explore a great deal about the challenges that many on-street EV drivers are facing with charging and where BT Group can add most value to the UK EV ecosystem. Other emerging needs we’ve identified include the Wi-Fi connectivity challenge surrounding EV’s - our pilots will now shift in focus to explore this further.”
Is that the end of the story? At some point I’m sure we’ll hear more publicly from BT about why they’ve shifted away from physical chargers, though undoubtedly, it’s a hard business and, presumably, BT already has its hands full on doing the job of installing fibre. Perhaps it’s one they have proved works and can return to… Or even save themselves the hassle and instead bring in operators to take on (akin to councils and their lampposts). Who knows, those are just my views. One thing is for sure right now though; BT has pulled the plug on its rollout.
Other news…
📈 Despite the warnings before Christmas, it seems Stellantis - who own brands such as Vauxhall, Peugeot and Citroen - hit the ZEV mandate target in its first year. This will surely displease the people of Luton, whose factory is being shut on the belief the mandate is to blame. Read more. Niche, but Stellantis has also shaken up its UK leadership this year. See more.
⛽️ A feature in the Financial Times suggests that Toyota may have finally concluded that hydrogen has flopped, at least in passenger cars. Read more (paywall).
👏 The EV Association for England has appointed Dr Vicky Edmonds as its new Chief Executive. Vicky was previously a senior civil servant deeply involved in EV policy at the Department for Transport. Her first townhall will be on 29 January where she’ll be joined by an OZEV official. Read more.
😬 Speaking of government policy… ChargeUK shared a post yesterday about their visit to meet the EV Minister, Lilian Greenwood MP. I mention this as the image shared of the Minister’s office includes not only a £350 Dyson fan, but she also has a portable radiator. Reminds me of that Katy Perry song which is uncannily reflective of Labour’s EV attitude last year… You're hot then you're cold; You're yes then you're no; You're in then you're out; You're up then you're down; You're wrong when it's right…
🤑 Talking of strong rules, owners in Dover face a huge rise in fees for parking and charging. From this week, Dover District Council will charge EV owners £105 per year for on-street parking, an increase of £65 over the current rate. This is more in parity with normal cars. Read more.
⚡️ I don’t always cover other country’s news. However, it’s worth flagging in Norway last year a whopping 9 out of 10 new cars were electric. Read more.
🚗 In Norway… a few years ago I went to Oslo and spoke to a senior figure at the country’s EV association. Based on this interview, I published this…
Reading it back two years on, many of those lessons still seem like ones we in the UK could heed. One lesson of particular note to me is how Norway supported those in flats. In short, they introduced a ‘right to charge’. Excerpt from that lesson below…
“One interesting approach Norway has taken recently was to change the regulations for apartment buildings saying everyone has a right to charge. Erik explained this means “local apartment boards can’t say no, they actually have to fix it”. In practice for landlords, the installing extra cabling and electricity capacity is split among everyone, like the use of an elevator. However, the actual EV charger is paid for by residents wanting to charge up.” [First published in June 2022 from Oslo]
🔥 EV fires do happen, and they can be bad. They’re not as common as people with names like Rupert and Murdoch like to believe, but it’s a truth they do. The FT has a great column on fires and how, with a change in battery tech to solid-state technology, this risk could lessen. However, the FT notes that better shock absorption is also acting as a faster fix in-vehicle platforms. Read more (paywall).
🤺 Facing competition from China, VW delivered only 383,100 all-electric vehicles in 2024 compared with about 394,000 in 2023. Read more (paywall).
💵 Talking of trade battles, the BBC has a good longer look at ‘Trump 2.0’ and what it might mean when it comes to tariffs, inflation and trade. Read more.
🎤 Finally, later today (Wednesday) at 3pm, Ed Miliband will appear in front of the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee for questions. I’ll be watching! Details on Bill Esterson MP’s post here.