Two innovative EV charging companies – Gridserve and Zap-Map – have landed significant backing from investors to the UK in their latest funding round, highlighting the appetite for new approaches to the EV infrastructure challenge.
Gridserve, which is promoting a “Sun-to-wheel” concept combining solar power and EV charging, secured an initial £200 million investment from Infracapital, the infrastructure equity investment arm of M&G Plc.
Gridserve’s plan is to distribute energy from hybrid solar farms into a national charging network of electric forecourts and hubs. It its also offering an EV leasing option.
Part of Gridserve’s Sun-to-Wheel model is the Gridserve Electric Highway charging network, which is supplied by 100% net-zero carbon energy and covers 85% of the UK’s motorway service areas.
“Through this investment partnership with Infracapital, we’re excited that our plans can accelerate, and it’s evident we now have the momentum we require,” said Toddington Harper, CEO of Gridserve.
“Investment in the future of our planet has never been so important and the IPCC’s latest dire warnings solidify the reality that we are in last chance territory, and we therefore need to take action as quickly as possible. This investment partnership will enable Gridserve to continue to rise to this challenge and deliver maximum impact without delay. “
Infracapital’s £200 million investment will help Gridserve to deliver over 5,000 high power chargers by 2025 across both its Electric Super Hub and Electric Forecourt networks.
Gridserve opened the UK’s first EV-only forecourt in late-2020 near Braintree, Essex, the first of over 100 Electric Forecourts the company is planning to open across the United Kingdom by the middle of the decade.
On a somewhat smaller scale, Good Energy, the 100% renewable electricity supplier and energy services provider, announced that its subsidiary Zap-Map, the UK’s leading EV charge point mapping service, had completed a £9 million Series A fundraising round.
The service currently runs a publicly accessible EV charge point map for UK drivers, including live usage data updated every five minutes. With more than 20,000 EV charging locations in the UK according to Zap Map data, that’s a lot of charger to keep track of.
The new investment round includes a further £3.7 million investment from Good Energy and a £5.3 million investment from new strategic investor Fleetcor UK Acquisition Limited.
Zap-Map will focus the new influx of cash on building on its paid-subscription services as well as initiating an international expansion of its mapping service.
“This fundraising round allows us to accelerate Zap-Map’s core mission – making it simple for current and future electric vehicle drivers to plan journeys, search and pay for electric vehicle charging,” said Richard Bourne, Zap-Map CEO.
“Good Energy has proven a powerful partner to date and we are delighted to have a new strategic collaboration with Fleetcor which will supercharge our ambition to accelerate the provision of services to the fleet market and allow us to look ahead and expand internationally.”
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.