PoGo Charge Accelerates Roll‑Out Of Ultra‑Rapid Charging After Successful Year Of Transformation
PoGo Charge is demonstrating its claim to be the UK’s fastest growing ultra‑rapid Electric Vehicle (EV) Charge Point Operator (CPO) having signed off its first year with a significant number of new hires, new partnerships, and an impressive deployment of 248 EV charging points in the last three months.
In a year of transformation, PoGo has not only grown its commercial and operations teams by 90% to 44 FTEs, but also announced major partnerships with London and Cambridge Properties (LCP) and Kew Green Hotels among others that will lead to the deployment of more than 1,000 ultra‑rapid charging points by the end of the year.
On celebrating the end of its first full year of operation, Stuart Douglas, Managing Director of PoGo Charge, says he has firm foundations on which to build: “The focus for 2024 will be on the continued expansion of the network, leveraging data insights from live sites to enhance our offering and further develop our site evaluation models,” he says.
“We will also be further developing our energy partnerships and evolving a driver‑focused strategy set to enhance the overall customer experience and set new benchmarks for accessibility.”
Last year PoGo was awarded a major partnership agreement with LCP to install 658 ultra‑rapid DC charging points at 89 strategic retail developments in England, Scotland and Wales. Being awarded a further contract with Kew Green Hotels to install 400 ultra‑rapid charging points at 40 new EV charging hubs at hotel brands including Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, voco and Courtyard by Marriott. This bringing the total number awarded across all partnerships to over 2,000 ultra‑rapid DC charging points.
PoGo became a Zapmap Live date partner last year which means drivers using Zapmap app and web map can view the live status and availability of PoGo charge points. PoGo’s chargers are also live on the roaming service Octopus Electroverse, as well as Paua for fleet drivers. The PoGo team is now making progress with a number of other roaming partnerships to make the network even easier to access for EV drivers. PoGo has also become a ChargeSafe Certified partner, further solidifying its commitment to providing safe and reliable charging solutions and creating new sites that adhere to the high standards of safety and accessibility that give peace of mind to EV drivers.
Stuart says that the skills and agility of the commercial and operations teams means they are now deploying EV charging faster than ever: “We have an opportunity to deliver something really special in the next 12 months and beyond,” he says. “We have already deployed 130 ultra‑rapid EV charging points in the first two months of 2024,” he says, “which is a fantastic place from which to grow.”
He also says there has been a tremendous response from landlords to the PoGo proposition: “They see the momentum for EVs building, and they appreciate the crucial role that EV charging plays in creating a sustainable future that is in line with their net zero ambitions. They recognise the urgency and opportunity in bringing much needed EV charging facilities to their sites, but they want to do it correctly; they want to give the right consideration for accessibility and with an eye on the future that takes into consideration how customer demand may change in the coming years. They need to work with EV charging partners with the expertise to navigate what can be a complex process, and with the financial strength to deliver for the duration of the lease. We bring all these advantages and more and can deploy ultra‑rapid charging locations at a market leading pace.”
