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Guest blog: Planning for 2030

General Posted: 13 February, 2023. Written by David Woodford, Head of Fleet Sales, Hypervolt

I can remember dozens of conversations happening with prospective EV customers in 2022 that went something like this, ‘by the time the vehicle you  order now goes out of warranty, it’s very likely that you won’t be able to replace it with an ICE one.’ As daunting as it seems, it’s an important point.

Since Kia rolled out its seven year warranty across its entire range in 2010, the rest of the industry has scrambled to match this compelling offering, and vehicle retention times have in turn increased. The effect of this has been forcing the average customer to look way further into the future than they would have done twenty years ago, and whilst this can bring clarity, there are those for whom the uncertainties of the future create anxiety in the present.

For some, the prospect of buying their last new ICE vehicle is an emotional one, after all we are abandoning the visceral experience of engine sound and that ‘new leather smell’ for the clinical serenity of an electric future. As I was ‘warned’ a week or so ago, the ICE deadline is almost as close, 83 months, as another formative British cultural moment, the 2016 EU referendum, 79 months ago. So with anxiety around the 2030 deadline that ends the sale of new petrol and diesel cars/vans at near fever pitch within the pages of the tabloids, just how concerned should we be?

Unsurprisingly as an industry insider my answer is remarkably short. Unconcerned.

I entered the EV industry at the back-end of 2017 when there were just over 6,000 public charging points, and just over 14,000 EVs sold in the UK that year, and so have been fortunate to view a revolution in real-time from the front-line. Therefore my sentiment on panicking about the looming deadline feels reminiscent of Lance Corporal Jones, ‘don’t’, for the new normal is already here. As I write this article in early 2023, the number of public charge points tops 40,000 and over 267,000 EVs were registered in the UK last year, a monumental societal and engineering achievement which we should give ourselves credit for. It is not time to be lamenting the demise of the internal combustion ‘bomb on wheels’, rather it is time to, with heart and voice, embrace our next step. My advice for domestic EV users is that we do this now, not in seven years.

But let us not forget how vehicles are only one component of our individual carbon footprints, and buying an electric car or van should never be viewed in isolation. Wholesale societal change requires wholesale lifestyle change, and we must consider how our homes and lifestyles adapt in turn. Our brand recognises just how central the sustainable home is to this transition, and our hardware and software offerings are designed with this at their core. This is why smart solar integration is so important to Hypervolt, and that integration was improved on again with the 3.0 launched on January 1st. It seems inconceivable that the long term plan for a home with an EV charger wouldn’t include solar as a minimum, and thus we continue to work tirelessly with tens of thousands of individuals and businesses across the UK to turn a ‘nice idea’ into a practical and future-proofed solution.

Whatever your plan for this decade looks like it is crucial to consider that the revolution isn’t less than seven short years away, it’s here.

About Hypervolt

Hypervolt entered the charging market 18 months ago with the bold motto ‘Charge and Change the World’. Founded on the pillars of ‘technology’, ‘sustainability’ and ‘the customer’, this British EV charging manufacturer enjoys a 4.8 star Trustpilot rating and following a September 2022 survey, AutoExpress said of Hypervolt ‘one brand clearly makes the best chargers’. In December 2022 due in part to their ease of install, solar integration and intuitive mobile app the brand were crowned ‘Best Home Charger’ in the 2023 DrivingElectric Awards. Committing to British manufacturing from its base in Essex, Hypervolt states that its ambition is to become the UK’s preeminent charge point manufacturer with the ultimate goal of accelerating our transition to a greener world.

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