The second stage of a phased rollout of char.gy EV chargers in Richmond, London, has begun, with no new infrastructure to be built.
Char.gy will operate a significant proportion of public chargepoints in Richmond and Wandsworth, taking over from fellow chargepoint operator (CPO) ubitricity. No changes will be made to the chargepoints themselves, but char.gy will receive payments instead of ubitricity.
In July 2024, Richmond and Wandsworth councils appointed char.gy to take over operation of 950 chargepoints across the two boroughs. The announcement closely followed news that char.gy had secured £100 million in finance from the UK government-anchored Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund (CIIF), managed by Zouk Capital.
Richmond and Wandsworth were among the first councils to roll out on-street charging networks, supported by the Go Ultra Low City Scheme (GULCS).
The scheme, which ran for five years, concluded in 2024. Instead of renewing the contract with ubitricity or replacing the charging infrastructure to be managed by a new CPO, the councils took the novel approach of migrating the existing infrastructure.
This third option saves time and eliminates cost, while ensuring service continuity and minimising roadside disruption for residents.
Migrating the network is possible because the technology of the chargepoints is open access. The Open Charge Point Protocol (OCCP) is an internationally recognised communication standard that certifies the communication abilities between EV charging hardware and software.
Phase one, which completed last year, saw 399 chargepoints integrated onto char.gy’s network. Phase two, which covers 167 chargepoints in Wandsworth and 69 in Richmond, has begun and will be finished this month.
The final stage of the transfer will be completed by November this year. Ubitricity will still operate 1,000 chargepoints in the boroughs that it installed in 2023, while the chargepoints char.gy operates were installed between 2019-2020.
According to Richmond Council’s website, the new price at the char.gy-operated sites will be 39p per kWh. This is also true in Wandsworth, where the council has added that “the previous contract pricing was set several years ago and does not reflect current energy costs, but this is still very competitive compared to other chargers in the network”.
This clarification suggests an increase in cost. In October last year, ubitricity upped its standard tariff to 49p per kWh, with higher peak pricing, but neither Richmond nor Wandsworth were listed as boroughs that would be affected by this change.
