EV charging giant Chargemaster has acquired EV charging infrastructure company Elektromotive and its subsidiary Charge Your Car.
The move will increase the number of charging points accessible through Chargemaster’s Polar public charging network, thanks to Charge Your Car merging with the Polar network.
Charge Your Car doesn’t own, install or maintain charge points on the network; instead the company provides ways to access the chargers, such as smartphone payment apps.
Chargemaster currently operates the largest number of publicly-accessible points in the UK, with the total now standing at more than 5,000 units.
Access to the Polar network costs users £7.85 a month and allows unlimited charging across the country.
“This is great news for the rapidly growing number of EV drivers in the UK. By integrating the Polar and Charge Your Car networks, we can provide more UK charging points, a number of new advanced features, and a better customer experience,” said David Martell, chief executive of Chargemaster. “Polar Plus membership gives every EV motorist access to more than 5,000 charge points nationwide, with around 90% of them completely free to use. We are committed to keeping the costs of charging low to support the industry as we transition into a new era of motoring.”
Speaking to BusinessCar earlier this month, Martell said he believes the UK should have 50,000 points by 2020.
“There are currently around 11,000 public charging points across the UK, including approximately 900 rapid chargers. By 2020 this will need to be increased to around 50,000 charging points, and companies such as Chargemaster are investing heavily to achieve this goal. There just needs to be more,” he said.
