EV CHARGING: Power to the people 

When news of an innovative and inventive EV charging solution reached Intertraffic, it got our collective minds thinking - just how innovative can electric vehicle charging be? Connect a charging cable to your electric car, leave it for a few hours and drive away - simple. Only it isn’t anywhere near as simple as that.
 

When Norwegian EV charging company Zaptec announced that its Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) electric EV charging infrastructure could turn airport car parks into strategic energy assets, helping operators cut energy costs, boost resilience and support a more stable grid, it suggested that Zaptec believes there is a growing opportunity to go beyond simple driver convenience and use airport car parks to support future-ready energy systems and help balance the grid.

At Oslo Airport Gardermoen, the company provides charging across hundreds of parking bays, with advanced load and phase balancing and MID-compliant metering. The Zaptec charging architecture is designed so that V2G functionality can be integrated as V2G-capable vehicles and market frameworks mature, which can turn sites into a flexible energy resource over time.

“With hundreds of connected EVs and their inbuilt batteries on site, airport car parks can become much more than somewhere to leave your car,” said Michael Braybrook, UK Managing Director at Zaptec. “EV charging infrastructure is more than just an amenity. As airports worldwide explore pathways to net zero, smart charging can play a core role in building future-ready, resilient energy systems, not just offering a plug, but actively helping airports manage demand, cut costs and support the wider grid.

“V2G capability could be critical in maintaining essential energy services such as lighting, communications and safety systems in the event of a power disruption, similar to the outage experienced at Heathrow Airport in March 2025. At the same time, travellers still get what they expect, cars automatically charged and waiting for them when they get back from their trip.”
 

“With hundreds of connected EVs and their inbuilt batteries on site, airport car parks can become much more than somewhere to leave your car”

So that’s V2G covered: what else is there? Intertraffic spoke with three companies who are making huge strides in the EV charging sector with three different solutions, but all combining logical thinking, design aesthetics, local authority cooperation and SOMETHING ELSE.

KERBSIDE CHARGING

KERBO CHARGE - INTO THE GROOVE
 

1. How does the Kerbo Charge cross-pavement channel installation work?

Michael Goulden, Director, Kerbo Charge: It takes around 90 minutes to install. We prepare a shallow slot exactly 70mm wide and 40mm deep, add bedding mortar and then ensure the channel is flat and flush with the surface of the pavement, temporarily holding it down with weights if necessary. We then add a specialist two-part MMA based gap sealant which sets in around 15 minutes to secure the channel in place.

Here’s an explanatory short video for your readers.

2. Who, or what, are Kerbo Charge's main customers?

Our customers fall into two groups, depending on how a council chooses to work with us. Under a wholesale model for the UK - such as Milton Keynes City Council - the local authority is the customer: they buy channels from us and manage installation through their own framework. Under a managed or turnkey model - as we have with Leeds City Council - the resident is the direct customer.

Behind both sits the same person: a resident who wants to charge an electric vehicle at home but has no driveway or garage to run a cable across. Around 40% of UK households park on-street, so it is a very large group - and we have now installed more than 1,500 channels across 40 local authorities. We also work increasingly with housebuilders designing on-street charging into new developments, and with charger installers who bundle a cross-pavement channel with the charger itself, so the customer buys one complete solution rather than sourcing the two separately.

3. How do you convince local authorities to take this step, and could this work elsewhere in Europe?

The key is aligning our product to the existing strategic goals of the local authority – which can include improving air quality, reducing CO2 emissions, cutting the cost of living for residents, and ensuring fairness and equity.

“We also work increasingly with housebuilders designing on-street charging into new developments, and with charger installers who bundle a cross-pavement channel with the charger itself”

The questions that follow are often the same: who is liable, who maintains it, is there genuine demand, and how much does it cost? Our job is to provide evidence that a practical solution is in place for all of these important areas. Liability is shared on a clear three-way basis between the resident, us and the local authority. Crucially, installations are typically revenue positive for the local authority at the time of sale.

We are already live in Europe! In Belgium, Spain and Denmark. Wherever there is a household with no driveway and our solution is practical, there is demand. Our product already carries CE marking and is tested to the European standard EN 1433, so there is no technical obstacle to deploying it elsewhere. We’re excited for European expansion and we are actively seeking reseller partners - please do get in touch if you’re reading this.

4. Residential charging is becoming a thorny issue - is it being newsworthy a growth opportunity?

For sure - a problem only becomes newsworthy when enough people are actually living it, and that is exactly what is happening: large numbers of drivers want to switch to electric but cannot see how they could make charging work for them. 90% of EV sales to date have been to residents with driveways; the evidence is fairly clear that we’ll only get mass transition to EVs when everyone can charge their car from home - that’s the vision for our business.

5. What's next? Where do you see Kerbo Charge in five years?

The unglamorous answer is that the next few years are simply about the hard work to build relationships with local authorities, one by one, until requesting a cross-pavement channel is as ubiquitous as applying for a dropped kerb. That is the goal: for home charging to become a right for everyone, an expected part of the streetscape.

In parallel, we’re working to add the option of ordering a Kerbo Charge as a standard part of the process for buying a new or used EV. Most EVs today are acquired through salary sacrifice, personal lease, fleet schemes, energy-company charger bundles or Motability, and our ambition is for a cross-pavement channel to be a simple option at that point - you add a Kerbo Charge to your basket alongside the car and the charger, and the home-charging problem is solved before you take delivery. If we get there, cross-pavement charging becomes one of the key enablers for EV sales.

DESIGN-LED

QWELLO - POLES APART

1. Can you talk about Qwello’s EV charging solutions – what makes them innovative and unique?

Nils Gaedt, Managing Director, Qwello Sverige: For us it really comes down to two things: we do the whole thing ourselves, and we build it all around the driver. As a specialised public charging operator, we design, fund, build, own and operate on-street charging as a single turnkey service from one source - at no cost to the city - so everything from siting to long-term operation sits with us. The hardware, the software and even our customer support are all in-house, which gives us control over the whole experience and is why we can run at over 99% availability.

Because the user comes first, the chargers are deliberately easy to use: a status light you can read from across the street and a clear, symbol-based display that’s easy to read, with the network open to everyone. Sweden shows what that looks like at scale: around 1,600 charge points across the country, more than 1,000 of them in Stockholm, where kerbside charging has simply become part of everyday parking.

2. Without necessarily namechecking them, how do Qwello’s solutions differ from your competitors’?

A couple of things really set our chargers apart in everyday use. The first is payment. Drivers can simply tap any common debit or credit card, their phone, or Apple, Google or Samsung Pay, as well as an RFID or roaming card - there’s no need to sign up, download an app or take out a subscription before you can charge, and the payment itself doubles as authentication, so it’s genuinely walk-up-and-charge.

The second is the parking sensors built into every Qwello pole. They monitor each bay in real time, so drivers can see live availability before they set off, and they flag vehicles parked in a charging space without charging, which keeps those bays free for people who actually need them. Together they remove two of the most common frustrations with public charging, namely not knowing whether a charger is free, and not being able to pay simply when you arrive.
 

3. Your chargers are beautiful to look at and have won design awards. What was the thinking behind the design, and how important is the aesthetic?

Thank you! Design matters enormously to us, and it’s deliberate. A public charger lives on the street for years, alongside people’s homes and shops, so it has to earn its place there. We approached the CP Series - Next Generation from what we call a 360-degree perspective: a considered, slim form rather than something industrial, clear status lighting and an intuitive symbol-based display that adjusts to ambient light, and accessibility built in from the start.

We’ve even developed variants with reduced visibility for heritage and conservation areas, so the design can defer to a sensitive streetscape rather than impose on it. There’s a serious point behind the aesthetics: when infrastructure looks like it belongs, communities welcome it rather than resist it - and that public acceptance is half the battle in rolling out kerbside charging. It was rewarding to see that recognised with both the iF Design Award 2026 and the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2026.

“Design matters enormously to us, and it’s deliberate. A public charger lives on the street for years, alongside people’s homes and shops, so it has to earn its place there”

4. In terms of your European coverage, what’s next for Qwello?

We’re growing quickly. We have more than 17,000 public charge points now across eight European countries and we get there in two ways, really. The first is organic: winning concessions and building new networks city by city. The second is through acquisition - in the Netherlands, for example, we scaled rapidly by acquiring the established Dutch operator Park & Charge, now part of Qwello.

Because we operate both our own purpose-built hardware and third-party chargers, that combination lets us take on existing infrastructure as well as roll out our own and move faster as a result. From here the focus is depth as much as breadth - densifying the networks we already have so kerbside charging becomes the default for people without off-street parking, with Northern Europe, building on our maturity in markets like Sweden, remaining a priority alongside continued expansion in Spain, France, the UK and beyond.

INFRASTRUCTURE-MOUNTED

CHAR.GY - Accessible, reliable and affordable

1. Who, or what, are char.gy’s main customers?

John Lewis, CEO, Char.gy: Our customers fall into three groups working in tandem. First, local authorities, councils across the UK who need a trusted delivery partner to build out their on-street charging networks. We work closely with them to design, install and operate infrastructure that genuinely serves their communities. Second are enterprise clients, including fleet operators, who need reliable, scalable public charging solutions for their drivers. And third, and most importantly, are the EV drivers themselves, particularly the ~40% who don’t have a driveway or off-street parking and can’t simply plug in at home overnight. These are the people who have historically been left behind in the transition to electric and closing that gap is what drives everything we do.

2. How do you convince local authorities that lamppost-mounted charging is the way forward, and could it work across Europe?

The lamppost argument really sells itself once councils see the numbers. Using existing infrastructure like lamp columns means we can minimise disruption while maximising reach, there’s no need to dig up roads or install new infrastructure from scratch. It’s a model that works for everyone, drivers get affordable, convenient charging, and local authorities get a network which is installed quickly with low disruption.

“Using existing infrastructure like lamp columns means we can minimise disruption while maximising reach, there’s no need to dig up roads or install new infrastructure from scratch”

Beyond that, we can point to a growing portfolio of successful partnerships: in the London Borough of Barnet for example, we installed 300 charge points in just six weeks, and now have a total of 500 charge points, which gives councils genuine confidence in our ability to deliver at pace. And in Reading in Berkshire, we’re aiming to put at least 90% of households without off-street parking within 100 metres of a public charger, that kind of tangible, measurable impact is very persuasive.

And that case travels well beyond the UK. The underlying challenge is the same wherever you have homes without driveways. The model is transferable; it’s really a question of building the right local partnerships and navigating each country’s regulatory framework.

Where lamppost charging isn't the right fit, we also deploy a range of DNO-connected (Distribution Network Operator) solutions at various speeds, so whatever the street, whatever the situation, we can meet all the needs of our customers.
 

3. Do you see residential on-street charging as a big growth opportunity?

Absolutely, and honestly, it’s the reason we exist. With such a large percentage of UK households having no driveway or off-street parking, it’s meant that for years renters, flat-dwellers and anyone relying on street parking have simply been locked out of the EV transition. That’s not a niche problem, it’s millions of people.

Our whole approach is built around bringing charging right to their doorstep, so drivers can charge overnight, within walking distance of home, without paying a premium for the privilege. The demand is there, the political will at council level is growing, and the funding landscape is improving. So yes, we see enormous room to grow, but for us it’s less about market opportunity and more about making the switch to electric a realistic option for everyone, not just those lucky enough to have a driveway.

4. How do you differ from your competitors?

We focus exclusively on residential, on-street charging, working street by street with councils to bring charging to where people actually live and park. Everything else follows from that focus: we design and manufacture our charge points in the UK specifically for this environment, our network availability runs at over 99%, and we’ve been ranked the most affordable tariff provider for four consecutive years, all powered by renewable electricity. It’s a joined-up offer built around one clear belief: that EV charging should be accessible, reliable and affordable for the people who need it most.

5. What’s next? Where do you see char.gy in five years?

We have a clear and ambitious target: to grow from our current network to 100,000 charge points by 2030, supporting the transition for up to 1 million drivers. We’ve recently hit 5,000 chargers, backed by £100 million in funding, so the foundations are firmly in place.

In five years, we want to be the partner of choice for local authorities and enterprise partners across the UK, the name people turn to when they need to deliver a reliable and accessible EV charging network, one that people can actually rely on. Ultimately, success for us looks like a UK where the street you live on is no longer a barrier to going electric.

To find out more about innovative EV charging solutions you can find the companies mentioned in this article in the following ways:

www.zaptec.com
www.kerb0charge.com
http://qwello.eu
www.char.gy