ZapMap, the fast-growing Bristol-based electric vehicle mapping service, has expanded its charge point location service into mainland Europe.
UK electric car owners driving across Europe can now use the ZapMap app and desktop map to find thousands of charge points in France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
The move is a key milestone in ZapMap’s expansion journey, forming part of its ambitious growth strategy to help serve the fifth of its users who travel abroad.
The number of electric vehicle (EV) owners driving in Europe has grown by 28% over the past year.
At the same time ZapMap’s registered users have soared by more than 50% to 700,000.
ZapMap was founded in 2014 with a mission to help drivers switch to EVs – and so accelerate the transition to zero emission travel – by helping them charge quickly and easily while travelling.
Subscribers pay to use it to plan routes, locate charge points and check their availability via their smartphones – factors seen as crucial to persuade drivers to ditch petrol and diesel cars in favour of EVs.
ZapMap, which is majority owned by 100% renewable electricity supplier Good Energy, already offers its services to more than 95% of the UK’s public points on its network, 70%-plus of which show live availability data.
It will now offer displays at 15,000 charging locations in mainland Europe.
Over the coming months, ZapMap will also open up additional features such as EV route planning and charging payments for drivers in France, Germany and Benelux, in line with its comprehensive offering for drivers in the UK and Ireland.
It also has plans to add charge points and more charging networks in further European countries, such as Spain, Switzerland, Austria and Italy next year.
Good Energy acquired a 12.9% stake in Next Green Car, the parent company of the ZapMap app, in March 2019 for just over £1m. Within 15 months it had increased this to 50.1%.
Good Energy CEO Nigel Pocklington, who is also chair of ZapMap, said the firm had made significant progress over the past year as it continued to broaden and deepen its market presence in the UK and now across Europe.
“It continues to track with the rapidly growing electric vehicle market, which has expanded by 40% in the UK last year with the share of electric vehicles new car registrations increasing in almost all EU countries,” he added.
“This announcement demonstrates our commitment to addressing the increasing demand for more accessible electric vehicle charging.
“It also reinforces Good Energy’s goal of becoming a one-stop company for all clean energy services, delivering on our objective to support 1m homes and businesses cut carbon from their energy and transport use by 2025.”
