EDF charges up £110m Pod Point bid

EDF Energy has made a multi-million pound offer for charging firm Pod Point, BusinessGreen understands, in the latest sign of surging interest from energy utilities in the burgeoning electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure market.

The energy giant has made a major offer, believed to be in the region of £110m, through one of its subsidiaries, documents seen by BusinessGreen show. 

Majority shareholders which hold more than 50 per cent of capital in Pod Point are understood to be willing "in principle" to sell their shares to EDF, as part of a deal that would value the firm at around £110m. If the deal proceeds it would see EDF acquire all of Pod Point's shares. 

EDF Energy owns and operates a raft of energy assets in the UK, including a gas and coal power station and several wind farms, in addition to developing Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset in partnership with China's CGN.

The firm also made its first foray into the EV charging and battery storage market late last year when it acquired Pivot Power, which is currently working on plans to install grid batteries totalling up to 2GW of capacity alongside a raft of fast charging stations right across the UK.

But the proposed Pod Point deal would mark EDF's most significant direct move into the UK EV charging market to date, bolstering its stated ambition to be the leading energy company within e-mobility across its four largest European markets the UK, France, Italy, and Belgium by 2022.

EDF Energy and Pod Point both declined to comment on the potential acquisition when approached by BusinessGreen.

Founded in 2009, Pod Point has sold around 80,000 EV charge points in the UK and Norway, and is the official supplier for major carmakers such as Volkswagen, Volvo, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Jaguar Land Rover, and MG. In December it also signed a two-year agreement with Groupe PSA to make it the exclusive charge point supplier for Peugeot, Citroën, DS Automobiles, and Vauxhall brands.

Taking control of Pod Point would therefore significantly strengthen EDF's links with the automotive sector, and would follow a similar strategy to that pursued by rival French utility ENGIE, which last summer snapped up UK specialist ChargePoint Services for an undisclosed sum.

Oil and gas giants have also been wading into the sector, with Shell buying up Dutch EV charging firm NewMotion in 2017.

Meanwhile, sales of electric vehicles have been rapidly growing in the UK despite the otherwise sluggish overall car market, and the UK government last week announced plans to bring forward the phase out date for the sale of new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars from 2040 to 2035 or potentially even sooner.

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• Topics
• Energy
• Venture Capital
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• Pod Point
• EDF Energy
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• EDF
• Pivot Power
• EV charging
• Electric Vehicles