Mobilize Power Solutions might be part of the Renault Group, but Mark Dickens, managing director of the business, is keen to help drivers of all vehicles.
Despite being around for some time, Mobilize is relatively new in the UK.
The reason we brought the company to the UK in 2021 is because we’re becoming increasingly concerned that corporate customers are buying and installing EV infrastructure for the present, not the future. Some products available today have technology that will be old in three or four years’ time. No business is going to thank you for selling it charging infrastructure that will need replacing in under five years. We’re not beholden to any one make of charging manufacturer; we procure several R&D-approved solutions for businesses.
Don’t delay, get involved today.
Businesses need to take action right now when it comes to EV charging. There are a number of issues, one being the regulations in the UK for us to physically instal every charger in the workplace, which are huge. When you consider the power itself, the storage and other factors, it can be six months before a spade is put in the ground on a project. Then you have to factor in supply issues to prevent any further delays – we don’t want people waiting 30 weeks for DC chargers to arrive.
A lot of high points since 2021…
Making sure we’ve got the right experts in the business to deal with inquiries has been important. In the EV world, some experts have been only an expert for a few years, whereas there are people within the Renault Group with decades of experience, having worked on the Renault Zoe and Twizy as well as the Nissan Leaf.
Another highlight has been the successes we’ve had in the public sector, where there has been a lot of investment. The growth in the sector is eye-watering in terms of the amount of business that comes our way. The difficulty of that, however, is keeping a close eye on how and where councils are looking to install chargers. As much as we’d like to help everybody, we can’t because the requests are so disparate.
Technology, innovations and actionable data are key to success.
We brought to market our own proprietary back-office management system, which allows public workplace depots to have tiered charging. That means it can be free for some employees, but chargeable to the general public. The beauty of the system is that each individual charge point – and the charge point sessions – can be managed. What’s more, you can manage the home charging of your employees all within the same business model. Plus, the technology allows fleet managers to report on carbon reductions. It’s really important for fleet managers to be able to see what’s going on with each of their employees.
Trust the people – and the process.
When you’re owned by any kind of manufacturer, people automatically associate you with them. But we’ve created a completely separate Mobilize domain and now we supply leasing companies and other independent businesses, who are confident they’re dealing with a brand-agnostic company.
One of the biggest challenges we have today is building and maintaining good business relationships. As a fleet director, I had access to a robust database of businesses and company contacts for all different vehicles, but here it’s not just the fleet manager we have to talk to, it’s facilities, procurement and other departments. We’re bringing a degree of expertise on fleet to this whole conversation, but others might not be as invested in it as we are.