Fastned boss: ‘EV success needs collaboration and consistency’

Charge point operator Fastned wants to revolutionise EV charging and dismantle the current ‘two-tier system’. Here, UK managing director Tom Hurst explains how

The sales figures speak for themselves. Despite the naysaying from the usual suspects, the Great British Public want EVs. Electric cars accounted for a quarter of all new car sales in 2025, and as recently as February this year, they made up more than 45% of sales in the second-hand car market.

This positive growth is further boosted by UK Government incentives such as the Electric Car Grant, which offers a discount of up to £3,750 on selected EVs, and the recently boosted home charging grant.

Despite this upward trajectory amongst UK buyers, one of the biggest obstacles EVs face is public charging infrastructure. In its 2025 EV pledge, the Government promised £4.5 billion to bettering conditions for motorists who cannot access off-street or home charging.

While digging into its coffers has helped grow the UK public EV charging network to almost 90,000 charging devices, the differences between private and public charging have created what Tom Hurst, the UK managing director of Fastned describes as a “two-tier system”.

EVs can still feel risky

Founded in around 2012, Fastned is a Netherlands-based charge point operator (CPO) with over 2,666 European charging spots from “the coast of Scotland, to the Spanish costas”. Naturally, the United Kingdom and its domestic Dutch market are part of its sprawling network.

With its nature-inspired yellow canopies, renewable solar energy, and driver-centric sites, Hurst says his group aims to redefine the public EV charging experience, instead of being “hidden behind the bins or at the back of a car park”.

But it also wants to make it more accessible.

“At the moment, buying an EV is going to feel risky, because a significant proportion of drivers live in cities, live in flats, and don’t have the direct benefit of a driveway or off-street parking,” Hurst explains. “If you don’t have your own charger, you’re essentially paying a 15% penalty to use the public network.

“Ultimately, that’ll make a dent in EV adoption rates, and that’s not what we’re here for. We’re here to provide everyone with visible, reliable, and affordable public charging they can count on.”

Without any form of subscription, Fastned’s ultra-rapid service sits with the likes of Ionity and Gridserve at the pricier end of the spectrum, at 79p/kWh. However, Hurst says that this is partially down to the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), or the UK’s misjudged interpretation of it.

The RTFO states fuel retailers must guarantee that a certain percentage of their products are zero-emission. As he explains: “In the UK, that mechanism doesn’t include charging or electrons delivered to cars. This means we cannot participate in the system.

“This isn’t about financial penalties; it’s about market efficiency. Enabling CPOs to generate and trade renewable fuel certificates would open an additional revenue stream for infrastructure and a source of cheaper certificates for petrol retailers to meet their mandated quotas.

“For the EV sector, trading these credits could be worth anywhere between five and 10 pence per kilowatt hour.”

He adds: “Equivalent frameworks are in operation in five or six countries Fastned operates in. In those countries, we’re seeing a huge impact on making the business case and model stack up for an improved RTFO, as it would allow us to invest more in line with growing EV demand.”

Signposting the future

While pricing is a perennial hot topic, Hurst says the two-tier system isn’t purely down to costs.

“It’s no longer about persuading people to go electric, it’s about making the experience work reliably for everyday drivers,” he says.

“What we’re lacking in the UK, which we see in France, the Netherlands, Spain, is a single unified harmonious national signage framework for EV hubs.

“What you have today is drivers who are often reliant on apps and local knowledge from areas they’ve been to before – all this makes sense in the context of the early adopters that are still making up the majority of EV drivers today.

“But we’ve got this real question about that next phase of the demand curve, the mass market, the people that don’t want to think about this. If you tell them you have to go onto an app and plan your route, that’ll absolutely be a barrier to them when it comes to making that decision to go electric.”

As well as reducing multi-app reliance, it’s clear that Fastned – and Hurst – aim to improve the overall public charging experience for drivers. If you’ve stood in the rain at a service station in the dark, you’ll know it’s a depressing – if not potentially unnerving and “fragmented” experience – for the motorist.

As part of Fastned’s pledge to improve the overall experience of charging an electric vehicle, the company aims to go beyond providing a much-needed covered space.

Ahead of opening several new sites, including two new facilities in the North East, the company promises a focus on amenities from properly maintained bathrooms to a range of food and drink outlets. It is also in the early stages of developing the UK’s first indoor charging hub in a converted warehouse in Aberdeen.

Pulling together everything, Hurst says, will create a user experience-based ecosystem that redefines charging stations as well-equipped, dry sites that prioritise the well-being and safety of their clientele. Toddington – North and South! – take note.

Planning needs to keep up with objectives

It’s a lofty ambition, and cynical observers will scoff at Fastned’s strategy of “working hand in glove with the Government” to pull it off.

After all, despite the Starmer administration’s best efforts to accelerate the EV transition, it has been criticised for failing to support the used electric car market, its reluctance to slash the astronomical cost of public charging, and its “lack of joined up thinking” when it comes to encouraging UK motorists to ditch petrol and/or diesel for electric.

Nonetheless, Hurst insists that “it’s a bit strong” to lay the blame at the foot of the Government, noting: “it’s totally committed to rolling out this EV infrastructure”.

Instead, he feels the problem stems from “assumptions of what charging should be”.

“Many of the objections we face come from outdated ideas of what EV charging is, and what it should be,” he concludes. “Our idea of using canopies to shield users is nothing controversial, and nor is our use of renewable energy as a power supply.

“Ultimately, we’re dealing with legacy planning frameworks, and we’re working hand in glove with the Government and public bodies to solve these problems – for example, we’re a founding member of Charge UK.

“Solving this issue is about collaboration, and treating the Government as an obstructive body won’t solve anything. We’re about consistency, we’re about working together, and we’re about these shared objectives of getting people into EVs.

“What we really need now is the legacy framework to keep up with objectives. Then we’ll really see these sites take off.”