Visa, a global digital payments provider, has just announced its new partnership with JustCharge, the electric vehicle (EV) charging solution and global digital payments provider. JustCharge is brought to the UK public from the app JustPark where EV drivers can search for available home charging points that are not in use by EV charger users.
Through the partnership, Visa customers using the JustCharge service will receive rewards when they make the payments under their debit or credit card. Charlotte Hogg, Chief Executive of Visa Europe said: “Innovative solutions like JustCharge, which provides secure, managed public access to private charging-points, can make an immense contribution to overall EV charging provision. We’re delighted to be involved through this new partnership.”
JustCharge is run through JustPark, who aims to connect over five million drivers with over 45,000 of the nearest EV charging stations. JustCharge is an app based platform offering a service that is used by the UK council and Parking companies to monetise unused car charging spaces. The service allows EV owners to optimise their private chargers, installed at home or at work, by renting it out to other EV drivers to use when the chargers are not being used for their personal use. The JustCharge app unlocks these thousands of available charging points to users who need to charge their vehicles. The purpose behind this service according to JustPark is to enhance EV ownership and make chargers available to the majority of UK EV owners who do not have the luxury of private driveways and their own charging station.
JustPark have stated that with 5% of households with a home charger joining the community charging network, it would double the number of charging stations that can be made available around the UK. Visa has used this theory as an incentive to promote this solution and rewards its users and mitigate the loss of the government OZEZ EV charger installation grant that ended in March 2022.
The Director of EV at JustPark, Mike Strahlman said: “We must collectively find solutions to help millions of British households transition to clean-air vehicles. While EV demand is growing dramatically, public charging infrastructure is falling significantly behind. Unlocking thousands of home chargers during the 90 per cent of the day they are not in use makes EV adoption a possibility for more than 50 per cent of British households without access to designated off-street parking. This partnership with Visa is a landmark moment in our efforts to redress the balance and make EV adoption an effortless, viable and cost-effective solution for millions more UK drivers.”
Referring to the research conducted by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), most EV owners charge at home. However, not every EV owner has this luxury, as more than half of UK households do not have designated off-street parking available to have a chagrin station installed. In north Britain the ratio to which there are EVs to charging points stands at a hindering 52:1 and in the south stands at 30:1. The reward scheme brought to the public by VISA’s partnership with JustPark could support the expansion of the apps network, specifically in areas in the UK where existing public charging infrastructure is limited to availability, all in an attempt to boost volume of the UK’s public charging stations to even out the ratio of EV adoption across the country.