One of the most fascinating aspects of the Green Energy Transition is the way in which progress is being driven by entrepreneurs, whereas the incumbents are so slow to recognise the opportunity. Perhaps it was ever thus, but we are sure that in 20 years’ time, this transition will be the subject of many a business school class. We think it clearly demonstrates that entrepreneurial spirit trumps incumbents every time.

Entrepreneurs – Toddington Harper and William Bannister

The race to provide high speed electric vehicle charging infrastructure is the obvious case study. If we look at Gridserve, we have the epitome of a firm that is trying hard to change the marketplace, everywhere, all at once. They are mission focussed. From a re-vamped motorway charging network, to a re-imagined car ‘forecourt’ they are certainly leading the charge. Hot on their heals in many ways is MFG, the forecourt operator. They are a conventional petrol retailer, but the similarity here though is that they are a private business which is run by entrepreneurs. They sell things to motorists, and are not precious about which type of motorist they sell to – everyone is welcome to buy a Greggs pasty at their forecourt.

Poor performing incumbents

Whereas the oil majors are just dragging their feet over joining this party. We don’t think a single Esso Petrol Station has an EV charging point – particularlty disappointing, since they are the largest brand in the UK; BP are pretty hopeless; Shell are starting to roll out a network, but their ambition and urgency seems very low.

Let’s look at the Supermarkets. We have Tesco, which for a long time has been out in front on this, with 2600+ EV chargers deployed across their estate. But actually, when you drill down to the detail their approach is very confused. Big Tesco Extra stores now usually have 3 chargers – a 50kW, a 22kW and a 7kW, all provided by PodPoint. So for one thing, the Pod Point chargers in the main require the Pod Point app – only the 50kW machines are contactless. But does having 3 chargers in this configuration make sense – who is your target market for this? The Tesco Extra at Bar Hill Cambridgeshire for instance, is on a major junction for the A14. There are very few junctions from Bar Hill down to the M25 and on to the Channel. It would make perfect sense to have this as a charging super hub for motorists en route to the Channel. One 50kW Pod Point is….pointless.

Sainsbury’s are very late to the party, but have suddenly woken up, and are now rolling out high speed charging hubs. Better late than never. But Morrisons is another very interesting example. Their brand new store in St Ives Cambridgeshire came with one EV Chargepoint. Unfortunately it is a single Geniepoint. And as everyone knows, Geniepoints are always broken. The St Ives store has a very large Petrol Station built as part of the complex – but not a single EV charge point. When constructing a new-to-market petrol station, it is incomprehensible that it didn’t incorporate EV charging. And now? Morrisons’ owners have obviously concluded that their management cannot sensibly operate their petrol stations, and have transferred ownership over to MFG (same Private Equity owners), who will presumably re-vamp these sites with the same Entrepreneurial Spirit that they are showing across their existing estate.

Public Sector waste

What about the role of the public sector in this? Perhaps the best example we can think of is the St Ives Solar Car Port debacle. Here we have a very well-meaning scheme, in which the large park and ride car park in St Ives Cambridgeshire has had a solar car port array installed. The concept was great, with electricity due to be sold to local businesses. The installation of the array itself was completed relatively quickly. But grid connections and other delays have meant that well over a year after being superficially complete, the site is still fenced off (as at time of writing), and 50% of the car park remains unavailable to users. And if that wasn’t bad enough, when the topic of car chargers is brought up – who will the supplier be, will they be contactless, how will they be maintained, etc, the answers are classic public sector. They are checking a box to say – “yes we will have EV charging”. But what will the “user experience” look like? We predict these chargers, like their broken BP Polar forebears, will be unreliable and have a low usage rate – that is if the site does ever open to the public. And the worst aspect of this? The public money that is being wasted. The “client” is the County Council, and it has little-to-no real capability to deliver a project such as this. No single person is sufficiently empowered with an entrepreneurial spirit to be able to deliver on the vision, and deliver a high class outcome that will meet the original intent. Perhaps we are under-playing the complexities here, but there is no sign of the urgency that befits a “climate emergency”, put it that way.

Carping from the side-lines

It is interesting to watch these things unfold in front of your eyes in real time. The different decisions that different firms and organisations are taking with respect to a disruptive new technology. Doubtless each firm is run by hard working, intelligent and very capable people. And yet, why are their decisions so different? Why did Tesco roll out their charging infrastructure in the way that they have done, whereas Sainsbury’s did nothing for years, but have now decided to go all in on high speed charging hubs?

Here is an idea that seems very obvious to us. Install large banks of 7kW chargers at urban supermarkets. These are cheap to install and easy to maintain. Implement time of day pricing for the chargers which then incentivises customers to come to the supermarket at quieter times of the day. Link the charger to your store loyalty card, and provide offers to EV drivers that bring them into the store whilst the car is charging.

For many years, Tesco was offering a discount on Petrol Prices when spending over a certain amount in store. It amazes us that no one is doing this with EV charging, especially when the nature of EV charging is that it is all tech enabled, so there so no need for paper vouchers.

But what we can see is that management time within these large corporations is finite, and both Sainsbury’s and Tesco are exiting Financial Services at the beginning of 2024. So whereas Tesco was once an all powerful entity, expanding its core offering to many countries around the world as well as expanding the range of services it offered in the UK, even in 2024 it is still on a path of retrenchment, as it continues to pull out of markets it once sought to dominate.

Therefore, it’s capability to create a proper EV strategy and then implement it is hamstrung by the problems elsewhere in the business. For now, a well-funded and ambitious Gridserve is not held back by such problems, and can expand as fast as it feels able to. Time will tell whether the Electric Forecourt business model is valid versus the Instavolt model of co-locating with fast food outlets and retail parks

But if there is one thing we can learn it is this. There will always be space for new ideas. Even the most dominant companies cannot sustain their dominance forever. It will be incredibly interesting – for instance – whether Google Search can retain its dominance in the face of Artificial Intelligence. Our expectation is that it will not. Google, much like Tesco, Kodak and General Electric will find that the ground has shifted under its feet, and that its core market is eroding away.

At Brimstone Energy, we are also MISSION FOCUSSED. Our mission is set out in the Brimstone Manifesto. If this sounds like the kind of company you would like to do business with, please reach out to us. The climate – and the insects & butterflies – cannot wait.