Pod introduces £40 per-month charging subscription service to facilitate EV transition

Pod has rolled out a £40 subscription fee for its Pod Drive service, slashing the up-front costs of buying and installing one of its Solo 3S chargers from £1,249 to £99. The charger is covered covered by a 48-hour Service Level Agreement.

Pod – previously known as Pod Point – is also rewarding Pod Drive subscribers up to 7,500 annual miles of cashback; the equivalent of around £170. In terms of how it works, customers ‘smart charge’ their vehicles to meet their desired target charge level by a specified time – e.g. 100% by 07:00.

At the end of each month, users pay their £40 subscription fee and energy bill. They are then provides with cashback to cover ‘smart-charged’ miles at an ultra-competitive rate of 2.3p per-mile, rewarding them with as much as 7,500 miles per-year amounting to over £170.

At present, the average cost to install a home EV charger is around £1,000. Regarding Pod’s decision to slash the hefty up-front fee for a charger, its CEO, Melanie Lane, said: “Pod Drive takes the hassle and complexity out of going electric and removes significant barriers in the form of upfront costs. As the original innovator in electric charging, we are constantly working hard to make life with an EV easy for drivers.

“Our EV charging heritage means we are well placed to help households shift to clean energy in a way that also helps the UK’s electricity grid. Pod Drive is only the first of a number of everyday electrification propositions we are developing as we expand from providing chargers to helping busy households with all their charging needs.

“With over 250,000 customers already trusting us to be at the heart of their EV life, we see Pod playing a leading role in the UK’s increasingly electrified future.”

Alongside the rebrand from Pod Point to Pod, the company is also shifting its focus from chargers to providing charging services.