Podcast – Jacob Roberts from Cenex discusses EV charging

There is no longer any debate that the UK is transitioning towards battery electric vehicles. In less than seven years the only new cars we will be able to buy will have a plug, so we’re really going to have to sort out our charging technology and infrastructure. 

With less than 50,000 charging stations available to the public – and the vast majority of those are in the South East – we’re certainly a long way from where we need to be. 

At our Northern Air Quality Conference in March, Jacob Roberts, Senior Policy & Strategy Consultant at Cenex, talked about the ‘Opportunities and Challenges of Developing Local EV Charging Infrastructure Networks’.

His talk proved to be so instructive and  illuminating that we had little hesitation in inviting him to share his thoughts with a wider audience through the medium of this podcast. We cover the current state of play in the UK’s charging infrastructure, home charging, obstacles to roll-out and touch on a couple of alternative technologies.

Jacob has worked in the sustainable transport industry for over eight years, beginning in local government where he gained hands-on experience of local EV charging infrastructure delivery, before working for Energy Saving Trust and Cenex, where he supported public and private sector organisations to reduce harmful emissions from transport.

At REA, Jacob co-ordinated an industry group representing and advocating on behalf of the UK EV charging companies. Jacob has now returned to Cenex – a not-for-profit sustainable transport consultancy – where his focus is on sharing the valuable insights that the organisation has gained from being at the cutting edge of the sustainable transport transition since 2005.