Fully Charged Live and what we learnt
What was Fully Charged Live 2019 like…
Eutopia for electric car, renewable energy, home battery storage and the ‘get-me-off-grid-now’ crowd.
When we attended the event last year there was a small army of EV-loving Rob Llewellyn devotees who wanted change. Last year, we were all simply happy to be in the company of the few like us who ‘got it’ and saw electric vehicles as a game changer. But in the year of Extinction Rebellion and Greta, we were astonished to be showcasing our small online electric vehicle consumer platform startup to an audience of over 10,000 people on a wet weekend at Silverstone. The revolution is in full swing.
It was also a great opportunity to get feedback on our #goodicebadice movement, and here’s what some of our stand visitors thought about it.
What did we learn…
We set up our stand with a simple objective, promote ChargeBound, generate leads to contact and get some feedback on our propositions. We came out of the event with some priceless lessons both about our work and the industry as a whole from the lovely people who visited our stand. Here are some:
- Huge need for information on electric vehicle ownership, driving, costs, types, charging in one reliable place: A majority of people in the UK are now aware of electric vehicles, they have heard some or all of the arguments on how cost effective they are, their low emissions, their performance, etc. But to those interested in exploring a switch to EV for their personal needs, they are forced to look at different websites, youtube videos, etc. which can feel like death by a thousand clicks. We plan to be at the forefront of addressing this need.
- Money, money, money: The cost effectiveness, purchase grants and tax benefits of owning an EV are not talked about nearly enough. Those in the know certainly get it and we had lots of current EV business drivers reference the fact that Benefit-In-Kind tax rate is ‘falling off the cliff’ in April 2020. People need much more education on the benefits of owning an electric — whether or not you drive an electric. Here’s another area we can work towards highlighting for our users..watch this space.
- The UK public charge point network is ‘ridiculous’: Yes, its expanding and there are more public charge stations been open across the nation. But like last year, the usage practicalities are still not been met. The need for different RFID cards or apps, rather than simple contactless debit/credit card payments continues to be an issue. And motorway/highway charging network operators have a woeful record when it comes to reliability and customer service. And the lack of booking services particularly for council residential area charge points makes it completely unreliable for those who have to rely on charging on-street. Hope our local government audiences consider these points.
- Tesla’s Model 3 will be a game changer in the UK: We pride ourselves on being independent and we have no affiliations to Tesla (apart from showcasing their cars alongside all other UK approved pure electric cars on our website). However, the number of current and future Tesla owners we met over the weekend, eagerly waiting for those first Model 3 UK deliveries (July-Sep 2019) was a noticeable trend. And our reasons for thinking this will be a game changer is simple. For the first time in the the electric car space, you will have ‘the’ premium brand offering much more in performance, reliability and brand strength, but most importanly being price competitive versus the existing conventional lower priced EV names such as Nissan, Kia, Hyundai. This will only force the lower priced EV bracket to reduce prices further to compete, allowing faster uptake by the public.
Where do we go from here…
Our mission remains the same at ChargeBound, ‘to eliminate car passenger emissions in the UK’. We have received some great feedback on our platform and some concrete advice on how we can best work towards serving our users and fulfilling this mission.
What our users and stand visitors appreciated most was the fact that we are a platform offering a choice of electric cars (to purchase or lease), home charge points (that come with installation) and fit for EV charging renewable energy tariff providers.
Our role as an independent party building a platform that showcases prices and features offered by respected providers of these different strands is something that stood out with our stand visitors, and its on this basis we will continue to build our business.
Are you good ice? The importance of rallying others behind our mission…
We have a goal of facilitating 1,000,000 electric vehicle orders, with revenues from this part-financing the construction of 1,000 ‘sustainable’ public charging stations. Sustainable because their revenues will provide long-term capital to UK carbon offset schemes what we believe can be equivalent to planting 60,000 acres of forest each year.
So are you for good ICE?
