
With the UK EV parc currently at around 80,000 vehicles and rising rapidly, the UK’s leading EV charging platform Zap-Map passed a significant milestone in August by attracting over 40,000 users.
These figures cement Zap-Map’s position as the UK’s number one EV charging platform, covering all charging networks and providing EV drivers with key charge point information. Integral with the mapping service is Zap-Chat, a real-time peer-to-peer comms channel allowing users to provide status updates and last-mile information.
To date, Zap-Map has achieved its market-lead with no external funding, the user-base growing sustainably through website, user and industry recommendations. Going forward, as the EV market develops apace, Zap-Map is entering an investment phase to improve its user experience and secure its leading position.
To take Zap-Map through its next phase of growth, Next Green Car Ltd has set up a new company Zap Digital Ltd and has appointed two new non-executive directors to the board: Patrick Fuller who brings with him a wealth of automotive digital experience as a former group director of Haymarket Consumer Media; and Keith Johnston, an EV consultant who has worked extensively at the corporate level developing EV solutions and services.
Zap-Map will be transferred to Zap Digital where it will form one of a number of EV products within a larger Zap platform; products designed to enable EV drivers to locate, access and share info on charge points; support networks to promote charge point usage and help mobility companies to assess the market and deliver their solutions.
Examples of forthcoming Zap products include: Zap-Pay, a payment and access interface allowing users to pay and access participating networks; and Zap-Insights, a survey portal which will open up an opted-in (and incentivised) Zap-Map users-base for market research.