Written evidence from BluePointLondon (ELV0051)

The Bolloré Group

Bluepointlondon (BPL) are a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bolloré Group who develop and manage electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure projects around the world with the aim of stimulating a modal shift towards EV. Overall the Bolloré Group has so far invested £4bn in global EV projects and deployed over 12,000 batteries in both mobile and stationary applications. They are the authoritative voice when it comes to encouraging people to switch to EV.

The Bolloré Group understand what it takes to ensure EVs become the obvious choice for consumers through building these global projects in Paris, Indianapolis, Singapore, Bordeaux and elsewhere. The Group’s global operations have managed to answer the central causality dilemma when trying to encourage a modal shift towards EV. This is that EV charging infrastructure is critical to give individuals the confidence to use an EV, but this has to be developed in tandem with EV car sharing services to give individuals a cost-effective alternative to start physically driving EVs. The Group currently has 5,000 car sharing vehicles across 8 schemes operating around the world.

Source London

In September 2014 BPL were chosen to succeed Transport for London (TfL) in managing the public Source London network of EV charge points. Backed by £100m of investment by the Bolloré Group, and drawing on the Group’s extensive expertise running similar projects around the world, BPL have significantly improved Source London, giving Londoners an interoperable, open and accessible charge point network.

BPL works closely with London’s political community to deliver the network, including stakeholders in all the London boroughs, TfL and London Councils to help residents switch to EV. BPL maintains a regular dialogue with stakeholders in central government, including the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV). BPL fully responded, for example, to the consultation on measures to increase the uptake of EVs as part of the Vehicle Technology and Aviation Bill. The consultation concerned issues related to smart charging, improving the consumer experience of EV charging and how to improve charge point accessibility.

BPL also has regular discussions with parliamentarians across the political divide and therefore strongly welcome the inquiry into EV’s by the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) committee and its premise as set out in the terms of reference.

Key facts:

• The Bolloré Group are investing a total of £100m in London’s EV infrastructure
• A framework agreement allowing BPL to repair and upgrade the Source London network has now been reached with more than half of all London Boroughs
• There are now 400 new smart charge points installed across those boroughs operating at an availability rate of 99%
• The Source London network as a whole is operating at an availability rate of 90%, having been at 60% when BPL took over in 2014
• In 2016, there were an average 25,000 total charges per month and 1,200 unique users per month

2017 plans:

• Source London charge points will be powered by 100% clean energy in a matter of weeks
• BPL are developing an ad hoc membership option to ensure Source London becomes even more accessible and open to all. This is also in keeping with the UK Government’s ambitions as set out in the Vehicle Technology and Aviation Bill
• BPL are this year integrating fast and rapid charge points for specific uses, such as taxi fleets, into the Source London network having reached partnerships with other providers
• BPL’s sister company, Bluecity, will be London’s first 100% EV point-to-point sharing scheme and will be trialled in a number of the London boroughs over the course of this year

Barriers to EV uptake

The Causality Dilemma – Autolib’ case study

The central dilemma facing the uptake of EVs is whether their increased use is led by individuals owning more EVs and hence demanding better infrastructure, or whether better infrastructure encourages people to drive EVs. The Bolloré Group has demonstrated that an interoperable, fully functioning charge point network is critical to give people an understanding of EVs, which remain a new concept for most. However, in order to drive real change this has to be coupled with a comprehensive EV car sharing system to give people immediate access to EVs, and also overcome the wider barriers to owning an EV, namely cost.

In Paris, the Bolloré Group’s car club, Autolib’, is popular amongst Parisians with more than 200,000 now signed up using the scheme. It is particularly popular amongst the younger generation for whom owning a car is becoming less of a necessity but who would still like to maintain access to a vehicle to use ad hoc. This has had fantastic results for the city’s efforts to crack down on excessive air pollution by getting people to pool their use of cars, using zero-emission EVs.

Key facts about Autolib’:

• Over 200,000 Parisians now use the car sharing service, connecting them to other forms of transport
• 13,000 bookings are made on Autolib’ per week
• The car club has resulted in 40,000 fewer cars driving in Paris

The Bolloré Group are this year introducing Bluecity which will be London’s first 100% EV point-to-point car sharing service. Operating like London’s cycle hire system, Bluecity will be trialled in a number of London Boroughs whilst it also reaches agreements with private partners such as airports.

Homogeneity

BPL believe strongly that a dense, homogenous network of EV charge points is the key to making sure that charge points are the obvious choice when it comes to driving. When BPL took over the Source London network in 2014, and notwithstanding the fact that many of the charge points did not work at all, charge points were different from one borough to the next, meaning EV users could not confidently rely on Source London to charge whilst travelling across London.

Interoperable access

At present a customer requires multiple memberships of different charge point networks in order to charge their EV, for example, in two different cities. That is why BPL support the Government proposing to take the power in the Vehicle Technology and Aviation Bill to enable legislation that will help to provide a single point of access to chargepoints.[1] This could be delivered, for example, through establishing a roaming platform to allow customers to use charge points freely from network to network. As a first step in this direction, BPL are developing a new flexible membership offer whereby customers that would typically need access only ad hoc (for example if they live outside London) pay a one-off membership fee, rather than a monthly rolling subscription, and then pay as they use the charge points just like regular existing Source London members. BPL endorses the principle of opening up EV charge point networks and making it easier to use without the need for multiple memberships.

Cost

It is widely known that EVs are expensive and there is at present too small a second hand market to spread the use of EVs as widely as possible. In short, EVs are enjoyed by too small a minority of only those that can afford them thereby significantly minimising their environmental benefit. The motoring journalist, Quentin Willson, recently pointed out that 90% of EVs are charged at home; this further demonstrates the affordability barrier to EV uptake as home charging is expensive.[2]

The need for a public, on-street and dense network of EV charge points where users pay per minute used has therefore become clear. Source London membership costs £4 per month and 3.6p/ minute of use on a 3kW or 7kW charge point. But whilst a public charge point network give individuals an affordable charging solution, EV car sharing services can deliver cars direct to people’s neighbourhoods that are wholly sustainable and affordable which give individuals affordable access to EVs.

Availability of pricing

The availability of pricing information is critical in creating a network that is easy to use for customers. There are at present many different pricing structures for charge point networks around the UK. BPL show their prices through the Source London website and on a dedicated mobile phone app. BPL’s intention is for all their charge points to have the use-price displayed on them, which would also assist with the introduction of greater ad hoc access methods.

The Government’s Industrial Strategy

The broad aims of the Government’s Industrial Strategy are a good sign for the development of electric vehicles. We fully endorse the ambition to deliver affordable energy and clean growth and also adjusting the UKs energy system to cope with the rise of new technologies such as EVs. In particular we welcome the importance the Industrial Strategy places on the development of advanced grid technologies, to which there are a number of references in the Industrial Strategy.

The industrial strategy states that it is important to ensure that the UKs grid is “smart and resilient to new demands – and new sources of supply – will be important for energy security, cost and industrial opportunities.”[3] BPL know that smart grids can, for example, respond more closely to the demands of consumers thereby allowing the use of new battery technologies, particularly storage in EVs.

BPL’s charge points are wired into the BT Openreach network allowing a full dynamic control which is essential to controlling the supply of energy and reducing and isolating depending on demand should government policy and / or grid capacity dictate. Through being wired into the BT Openreach network, Source London charge points can also be monitored 24/7 and maintained remotely – more than 40% of faults can be repaired remotely within 30 minutes ensuring the service is readily available to customers. BPL continues to support the aims of the Industrial Strategy in this regard.

April 2017

4