Weekly editions to cease
An update on this newsletter
To all my readers…
Five years and six months ago, I wrote my first edition of The Fast Charge. We were barely a year out of the pandemic, and it was only two months on from COP26, where the UK Government announced a ban on internal combustion engines from 2030.
I was 25, fresh out of Whitehall, had zero knowledge of electric cars, and no formal journalistic credentials. But I didn’t let that stop me from launching this publication.
Since then, I have posted 280 weekly editions, consisting of around 4,000 stories about Britain’s EV transition.
In my first post, I set myself a question… Why should people sign up? I wrote that I hoped this newsletter would be informative, light, and informal, as I really hated – and still do dislike – “serious writing”. The best praise I’ve ever had is when a reader described The Fast Charge as Private Eye for electricians.
Most importantly, though, I wanted this publication to act as a critical friend. To celebrate the EV sector at its best, but to hold it to account when it falls short.
Whether you have been signed up for years, months, or weeks, I hope you feel I’ve achieved this. With this in mind, I wanted to let you know about a pretty big change to the newsletter.
From mid-August, I will no longer be publishing weekly.
Why, Tom?
There are a multitude of reasons. The main one is that I have been offered an exciting role while a friend goes on maternity leave. And, on reflection, I’m not sure I’ll be able to offer you the standard I’d expect if I tried to keep it weekly.
As such, I’ve decided I’m going to take the pressure off and instead plan to focus this publication on longer features and investigations. Which I’m sure are the bits that many of you enjoy the most anyway.
And, for anyone concerned, this decision is not related to my health. Which is superb.
What does this mean practically?
The newsletter will continue, though I cannot commit to any sort of regularity after mid-August.
As such, if you are currently a paid member, I will begin the process of cancelling all monthly subscriptions after sending this email.
For those who have annual plans, refunds will be provided pro-rated to the month you last paid up to mid-August. This may take some time on my end to work through, so please do bear with me as I deal with my finance team (aka, moi).
After August, new posts will be free for everyone, though there will still be a way for people to support my work if they wish to.
Final note…
There are still a few more weekly editions for you to enjoy, so it’s business as usual for now. Though, as I’ll certainly say again in August, I’ve really appreciated the thousands of you who have subscribed and supported this newsletter to date.
I trust you’ve enjoyed reading it each week as much as I have enjoyed writing it. And I hope you stay signed up, as there is much work still to do.
If you have questions about anything above, you can reach me here. Or simply reply to this email!
Best wishes,
Tom Riley ⚡️ Editor of The Fast Charge Newsletter