Visa Partners with JustPark to Boost Electric Vehicle Adoption

Visa has announced a new partnership with the community electric vehicle charging service JustCharge, who operate from private driveways as well as other locations across the UK, already connectking five million drivers with over 45,000 private driveways, garages and parking spaces.

What this means in practice is that Visa customers using JustCharge will receive rewards when they pay using their Visa debit or credit card. The idea is to make paying for EV charging as easy and straightforward as contactless purchases is shops and stores.

Visa recently conducted a survey amongst EV and hybrid drivers and found that 95 per cent of respondents said that standardising payment across public charging points would give them not only better choice and accessibility but also greater confidence.

The way that JustCharge works, is that they enable EV owners that have a private charger installed at their home or business premises to rent it out to other EV drivers when they are not using it via the JustCharge intuitive app, thereby opening up thousands of available charging points close to other EV drivers’ workplaces, homes and commuter stations, helping to make EV ownership a viable option to more households. As we know, access to charging points is a real sticking point when it comes to buying an electric vehicle for the first time.

JustPark carried out research recently that shows that if just five per cent of households with a home charger joined its charging network, this would double the number of charging locations available in the UK. What it also does of course, is to enable private homeowners to generate some extra income by monetising the periods when they are not using their charging point themselves and also help make up for the loss of the government OZEZ EV charger installation grant, which ended in March this year.

JustPark Home Charge Point

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders discovered in recent research they carried out, that the majority of new EV owners tend to charge their car at home. But with half of British households not having any designated off-street parking, it immediately creates a national divide in the viability of EV ownership. The research also found that the problem is particularly acute in the north of England, where the ratio of EVs to charging points currently stands at 52:1, compared to 30:1 in the south of the country.

With EV sales now accounting for one in six new UK car registrations according to the SMMT, the growth in public charging facilities has fallen significantly behind this surge in demand. While plug-in car registrations have grown by 280 per cent between 2019 and 2021, charge point availability has only increased by 69 per cent.

Mike Strahlman, Director of EV at JustPark said:

“We must collectively find solutions to help millions of British households transition to clean-air vehicles. While EV demand is growing dramatically, public charging infrastructure is falling significantly behind. Unlocking thousands of home chargers during the 90 per cent of the day they are not in use makes EV adoption a possibility for more than 50 per cent of British households without access to designated off-street parking. This partnership with Visa is a landmark moment in our efforts to redress the balance and make EV adoption an effortless, viable and cost-effective solution for millions more UK drivers.”

Whilst Charlotte Hogg, Chief Executive of Visa Europe added:

“The challenge we collectively face is to grow our electric vehicle charging infrastructure rapidly and strategically and find sustainable solutions today to avoid creating problems for the future. Innovative solutions like JustCharge, which provides secure, managed public access to private charging-points, can make an immense contribution to overall EV charging provision. We’re delighted to be involved through this new partnership.”

To find out more about Visa’s urban mobility programmes, please visit: Global Urban Mobility.

Author Bio:

Simon Burrell is Editor of Our Man Behind The Wheel, a professional photographer and former saloon car racing driver.

Photographs courtesy of JustPark

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