Top 50 Indie Midland Motor Fuels has put in its first EV chargepoint, at its busy Tyburn Road site in Birmingham.
Director Shailesh Parekh took advantage of a new operating model from Forward-EV, where he bought the equipment and Forward-EV installed it and maintains it.
Forward-EV’s managing director, Andrew Oakes, said: “We were keen to develop a model to enable dealers to ‘do-it-themselves’ when it comes to EV charging on their sites. There are deals out there, but everyone wants to rent space on the forecourt. Our model is low cost and simple and, on top of that, it will make forecourt operators money. With our model, they own the equipment and then earn all the revenue from it.
“We manage the payment gateway so we collect the revenue for the dealer and then we give that income back to them once a month, less the transaction fee.”
It cost Shailesh less than £30k to get the 50kW EV charger up and running at the Tyburn Road site which was chosen because it is near to Birmingham’s Spaghetti Junction and is therefore a very busy route.
Shailesh, who has seven sites, said: “It’s early days but people are already using the charger. The Forward-EV model works for me because they look after everything for me. The affordability means I can use Tyburn Road as a test site to see how things go. If it goes well, we will consider it for other sites.
Oakes says another key difference with Forward EV versus other chargepoint operators is that dealers can use their own power connection.
“It’s all about asset management. Owning your connection is really important in future-proofing your business as those connections will only increase in value in the future. There won’t be unlimited capacity on the grid, so if you own your own connection, you’re in the best position. In the future as hardware changes, and the industry changes, the real value will be in the connections.”
Shailesh says that at the moment he is getting two-plus vehicles a day using the chargepoint and he uses it himself as he drives an EV.
“I do like my EV, especially all the mod cons it has which take the tension out of driving such as driver assist, but when I’m driving it, I am always thinking about the mileage and the range I have left. I have a chargepoint at home but I often forget to plug the car in, which is really annoying but now I can charge it at work.”
Oakes says that with two or more customers a day, payback is typically a year to 18 months.
Shailesh has a service contract with Forward-EV which covers call-outs, parts and labour and includes the payment gateway.
Oakes says his company can advise on pricing but ultimately it is up to the dealer: “They can change their pricing whenever they want, just like they would with petrol or diesel.”
The chargepoint takes contactless payment and Forward-EV does all the marketing, ensuring new locations are put on Zap Map.
Forward EV’s chargers can also carry advertising – videos and photos can be remotely uploaded onto them. “If a dealer wants to do a promotion or they want to show a product that’s in the shop, we can do all that for them as well,” said Oakes.
“This is a new income for them. They don’t need to rent space, they don’t need to sign a long lease. With us, it’s very easy and straightforward.”
