Fortum Charge & Drive enters UK market - Signs cooperation agreement with Franklin Energy
Fortum Charge & Drive has signed a cooperation agreement to provide Franklin Energy in the United Kingdom with the Charge & Drive cloud solution. This will enable Franklin Energy to offer e-mobility solutions to electric vehicle drivers across the UK and operate its growing electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
Franklin Energy has ambitious plans to use the Fortum Charge & Drive solution to further expand its charging infrastructure in the United Kingdom and develop its service into one of the most compelling and user-friendly EV charging solutions in the UK.
This agreement enables the introduction of the Fortum Charge & Drive cloud solution to operate Franklin’s existing EV charging stations as well as new chargers to be installed in the future. Franklin, based in Liverpool, currently offers charging services in multiple locations in the UK and has secured an investment to build a significant charging infrastructure of its own as well as to operate charging stations for others. In 2016 it launched the LiFe charging network, and by the end of 2017 Franklin Energy aims to have a presence in every major UK city in England, Scotland and Ireland.
“We selected Charge & Drive as our operating platform for two reasons. Firstly, Charge & Drive is the leading operator in the Nordic markets, which has seen mass adoption of electric vehicles, and it is experienced in all aspects of the value chain – from customer support to building new city EV charging networks. Secondly, Charge & Drive is charge point manufacturer-agnostic and has more than 15 charging manufacturers already integrated into the back end, allowing Franklin to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape and bring new emerging technologies to market before its competitors,” says Robert Byrne, CEO and Founder of Franklin Energy.
These past years show that the establishment of a complex infrastructure of EV charging points requires advanced and reliable solutions to operate the chargers, as well as customer-oriented solutions to support the increased use of electric vehicles. EV drivers expect real-time information on the accessibility and location of EV chargers, as well as straightforward payment solutions. Reliability in both the hardware and software solutions combined with a responsive customer support is crucial to the end user experience. The Fortum Charge & Drive cloud solution answers these demands and enables remote monitoring and upgrades, and provides easy payment for the use of chargers.
“We are very pleased about Franklin choosing us as its system partner in the UK. The UK is a fast developing market and we believe that our cooperation will add value through our open standard, hardware agnostic system, which is also prepared to support interoperability in the market. We look forward to combining our Nordic experience with Franklin Energy’s local and ambitious team to provide a professional and refreshing solution for B2B and B2C clients” says Rami Syväri, Head of International Sales & Business Development, Fortum Charge & Drive.
Fortum Corporation
Group Communications
For more information, please contact:
Robert Byrne, CEO and Founder, Franklin Energy, mobile +44 (0)7818 403566 Rami Syväri, Head of International Sales & Business Development, Fortum Charge & Drive, mobile +358 40 7095566
Franklin EV Limited T/A Franklin Energy
Franklin Energy is a leading electric vehicle charging provider based in the North West of England with operations nationally. The UK electric car charging market is set to grow exponentially over the next 5 years and Franklin Energy will be at the forefront of this revolution providing electric vehicle charging on an unprecedented scale working with high profile clients in both the public and private sector. www.franklinenergy.co.uk
Fortum
Fortum is a leading clean-energy company that provides its customers with electricity, heating and cooling as well as smart solutions to improve resource efficiency. We want to engage our customers and society to join the change for a cleaner world. We employ some 8,000 professionals in the Nordic and Baltic countries, Russia, Poland and India, and 62% of our electricity generation is CO2 free. Fortum’s share is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki (FORTUM). www.fortum.com
Fortum Charge & Drive
Fortum Charge & Drive is a pioneer in electric vehicle charging and has a network of 1300 affiliated smart chargers in the Nordic countries. Charge & Drive aims to respond to an increasing global demand in e-mobility, by providing world-class cloud solutions. Charge & Drive Cloud provides an intuitive end-user interface and a comprehensive back-end system that supports charge point operators in the remote management of charging stations. www.chargedrive.com
