INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
JAMES MCKEMEY TITLE : HEAD OF POLICY & PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMPANY : POD POINT INDUSTRY : EV CHARGING LOCATION : UNITED KINGDOM
McKemey has a crucial role to play in delivering sustainability electric car charging solutions . He specialises in environmental and sustainability assessment with a key focus on BREEAM to inform Pod Point ’ s decisions on how best to move forward with charger roll out and distribution .
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR EV USERS – PUBLIC CHARGING OR AT-HOME CHARGING ?
Home charging is the most convenient , and usually the most affordable way to charge an EV . Up to 72 % of drivers have access to offstreet parking at home that will enable most to charge overnight .
For those who can ’ t charge at home , many will charge very easily at their workplaces , but there are those who will be solely reliant on public charging . There is no single solution , it will be a mix of widespread destination charging , potentially on-street charging and maybe some more regular use of high-powered charging . Either way there is still a lot of work to do to build the charging infrastructure we ’ ll need to support the mass uptake of electric cars over the next decade , but that work is well underway .
Pod Point ’ s public network is one of the largest and most used in the UK . Our strategy is to work with commercial partners to fit charging infrastructure into their existing , popular locations , which drivers naturally visit anyway ( e . g . supermarkets , station car parks , gyms etc ). This has been a success and has proven popular with EV drivers .
WHAT ARE THE ECONOMIC BENEFITS TO DRIVERS THROUGH EVS FROM A CHARGING PERSPECTIVE ?
Charging an electric car at home is the most convenient and cost-effective way to keep your car fully charged , costing about £ 17 for a full charge and providing about 200 miles of range . Most drivers will charge their electric car overnight , waking up to a full battery every morning . By switching to a dual-rate electricity tariff designed specifically for EV drivers you could reduce this even further . But it is possible to save money charging in public , versus filling with petrol , with competitive tariffs found on numerous public charging networks .
As well as the “ fuel ” cost savings , EVs have vastly fewer moving parts and thus have substantially reduced maintenance requirements . EVs have no clutches , exhausts , cam belts , timing belts , head gaskets , etc etc . These reduced requirements mean reduced operating costs .
EVMAGAZINE . COM [ Nov 2023 ] 25