Monta, a Danish tech start-up, believes it can help accelerate the rollout of EV charging point infrastructure in the UK. Its app connects private business owners with charge point installers to provide additional stations, while homeowners can also get on board by installing and renting out private charging points to neighbours and local drivers.
“We have a roaming network right now which has 150,000 charging points in Europe and we are adding another in the UK, so that’s adding another 60,000 or 70,000 chargepoints.
“Luckily enough, a lot of these big players, they’re not known for building the user interface so that’s why we’re partnering with them, so that’s why the product fit is really good for us.”
Currently, there are more than 132,000 new electric vehicles registered in the UK, an increase of 28 percent year-over-year.
The Monta app already counts more than 6,000 active users, aiming for 400,000 by 2022.
“We have started in the UK by working with installers, operators, wholesalers and initial feedback has been really, really positive.
“We are speaking with stakeholders all over the UK, not just Greater London, and we want to understand their feedback about our product because we are the software layer so it is easier to scale.”
To meet the 2030 deadline, the UK would need to install around 700 chargers every day to meet the demand, for a total of 2.3 million.
There are roughly 25,000 EV chargers in the UK, with 10,000 of these being rapid chargers.
Mr Rasmussen commented on the long-term aim of Monta, saying: “We really want to do what Android did for the smartphone and we want to do that for charging.
“So we want to be known for really nice software layer that users are familiar with and then it can be less important for the users for them if its Schneider, Siemens or ABB Charger.
“It’s going to be the same experience for them.”
Monta has raised a total of £4.2million (€5million) in capital investment since its inception in December 2020, including early investors of electric vehicle leader Tesla.
