Vattenfall and New Motion have signed a roaming agreement that provides open access to 400 UK public electric vehicle (EV) chargers via a single app or card.
The firms say they hope to expand the deal.
Anthony Hinde, who leads Vattenfall’s In Charge business in the UK, said seamless roaming is “the norm in many European countries” but “still a rarity in the UK”. He suggested the deal will “encourage the uptake of EVs in the UK”.
There are around 25,000 public charge points in the UK, but few are open to roaming agreements, leaving drivers to juggle apps and cards in order to use them.
Last month government mandated that all new rapid and super fast electric vehicle (EV) chargers installed from April 2020 must offer card payment functionality.
It wants industry to enable any EV driver to use any public charging point to address interoperability issues that risk inefficiency and poor driver experience, depressing EV uptake
Industry groups have urged government to mandate a common protocol to better enable roaming.
New Motion CEO, Sytse Zuidema, said ease of charging is a “key consideration” for people considering switching to an EV.
The Shell-owned company has installed 52,000 charging points to date, and provides access to 118,000 charge points via its network across 30 countries.
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