The crowded world of EV chargepoint firms has become that much more competitive after three former Tesla staffers secured funding to build a network of urban charging hubs.
Hubber has been set up by a trio of ”key members” of Tesla’s UK Supercharger arm after Elon Musk disbanded the entire department in 2024, laying off 500 staff in the process.
Three of those 500 staff have now gone on to found Hubber, with Harry Fox, Connor Selwood and Hugh Leckie using their experience overseeing the delivery of over 100 Supercharger sites comprising 1,200+ ultra-rapid chargers to secure funding worth £60m.
Rather than take a scattergun approach to the competitive chargepoint sector, where competition is fierce and profits are often elusive, Hubber is choosing to specialise in the urban environment, with a specific focus on commercial charging.
The initial investment is going towards 30 hubs, with the first of these set to open on 20 August in Forest Hill, south-east London, in partnership with Antin and Raw charging.
Hubber’s hubs will target those driving taxis, ride-hailing and private-hire vehicles, buses and delivery vans, which are often overlooked by companies seeking to build a presence in the chargepoint sector.
The company’s USP is that it will do much of the hard work for firms looking to implement charging hubs by delivering “modular, planning-approved, ready-to-operate sites”, deploying a “proprietary site-selection model” and working with a “trusted supply chain” for charging equipment and infrastructure components.
The company says it will work with chargepoint firms and commercial partners to acquire “prime urban locations”, while also securing “long-lead megawatt-scale grid capacity” – this last aspect often being a sticking point for companies looking to make good their electric ambitions.
Hubber’s chief executive, Harry Fox, says that while the chargepoint sector initially focussed on motorways, “today the real pressure is in cities”, where commercial fleets are electrifying fast but “infrastructure is lagging”.
James Bayliss, Hubber’s investor lead, says the company has a “uniquely skilled team”, and he expects their work to “make a significant and lasting impact on the country’s electrification”.
