Delivering infrastructure at scale

Sometimes big is beautiful, and when it comes to accelerating the roll-out of a nationwide Electric Vehicle (EV) charging network, the importance of marrying that acceleration with scale cannot be underestimated.

‘Scalability’ can mean many things. To me, it’s fundamentally about people, because only with the right size of team and of the right calibre can you hope to deliver and deploy the infrastructure we need at scale, and on a nationwide basis.

Only with people, can you expect to be able to maintain the technology installed, or deliver the level of 24/7 customer service now required, across England, Scotland and Wales. And only with people can you attract the scale of investment needed to deliver a solution that your customers know will be supported over the long term. It is this investment that also affords you the opportunity to develop new software and applications that support an enhanced customer experience.

Our ability to deliver at scale is the result of 14 years of continuous hard work and sustained investment. It’s a winning combination that has come about by design, not accident. We have continued to expand and invest to support growth, and now have close to 200 people across multiple departments. This includes 85 customer facing service staff, supporting drivers and charge point owners.

We have also expanded our remote technical support teams, capable of monitoring the networks we’re responsible for around the clock, as well as our own software developers working tirelessly to enhance our software platform and add further functionality to our solution. (Latest developments include a new app, a new user interface dashboard, and a new payment system, with more enhancements to follow.)

From the early days of installing one or two charge points, and being proud of being the true pioneer, we are now able to deliver multiple projects simultaneously, and to a scale unimaginable when we first started.

Major hubs with multiple charging bays such as Clepington Road and the Camarthenshire hub are now the rule, rather than the exception, and the 226 charge points, recently deployed across 43 sites for the local authority in Cornwall shows how we are serving a wide range of strategic markets which also include CPOs, ebus/etruck, Local Councils and Fleets.

We have something in the order of 14,000 commercial charging stations now deployed comprising small, medium and large-scale programmes across the length and breadth of the UK. We also have access to the widest range of solutions and equipment to match every need, with finished stock and spares readily available whenever and wherever they are needed.

While I am not unaware of the current negative wave of publicity regarding EVs, neither should any of us who consider ourselves real leaders in this industry be distracted by it. It is interesting that FairCharge felt the need recently to issue a myth-busting document to counter some of that publicity, and let us hope that those who still need persuading will read it. Having just returned from a tour of local authorities, meeting many who we now consider friends, I can tell you that their appetite remains undimmed.

For our part, we continue to evidence our commitment not only in the services we provide, and the different funding models we can accommodate, but also in other ways, such as ensuring our entire fleet is itself fully electric, which it is today. It may be a small thing, but it’s a very visible statement of our commitment to walking the talk and we are proud of this achievement.

I am more than optimistic about the future; I am excited by it. Our growth has been strong and consistent, year-on-year, and we have the capacity and the capability to do even more. Make no mistake about it: organisations like ours and my peers within the EV infrastructure space are well placed to deliver an electric future that everyone can be confident in and enjoy.

Justin Meyer, Managing Director, SWARCO Smart Charging Ltd.