EV3 Power’s managing director Pete Bevils says he wants his company to become the UK’s biggest infrastructure sustainability business. Infrastructure Intelligence spoke to him about how he plans to achieve that aim.

Serial entrepreneur and self-confessed car fanatic Pete Bevils describes his rapidly expanding sustainable infrastructure business as “the most exciting venture I’ve been involved in since starting 20 years ago”. The clearly passionate Bevils is managing director of EV3 Power, a three-year old business involved in helping key major businesses, councils and others use sustainable energy – including the huge growing market for EV charging infrastructure.

By working with the world’s biggest energy companies, electric vehicle charger manufacturers and automotive original equipment manufacturers, the firm is already helping the UK motor industry become free from fossil fuels, kinder to the planet and sustainable for the long-term benefit of everyone.

Whether that’s meeting the need for a single charging point at home for an electric car, five at a business for an electric fleet, or hundreds for an infrastructure project, EV3 Power has rapidly built the capability, experience and expertise to help meet the growing demand.

“I’m a serial entrepreneur and also a bit of a car fanatic and when I peeled the carpet back and looked at the potential for EV charging infrastructure, I thought this is going to go crazy. It’s a very exciting industry to be in,” said Bevils. “We started in earnest in 2019 but then the pandemic hit and slowed everything down. But when we got going again, we decided to change our focus from just a charging point installation business into more of a sustainability business.

“We thought we could push on with this and bring technology to help sustainability – that includes solar, batteries and car charging points themselves. As part of that, we’re also able to take industrial sites off grid, especially with solar power. Financially it makes a lot of sense, so essentially we’ve become a sustainability one-stop shop really,” he says.

Describing the firm’s offering to the infrastructure sector, Bevils said: “We’re already helping major clients like National Rail and National Highways become more sustainable. We also know tier one contractors, who’ve all got to go on their own sustainability journey. We do this day in day out. They don’t, so our job is to help them on their own sustainability journeys.”

Asked about improving confidence about and removing barriers to new EV infrastructure, Bevils said that progress is being made. “We’re starting to catch up. EV uptake in 2019 was 1% - it’s now up to 26% so actually we’re catching up and this last 12 months it’s gone crazy. And that, of course, brings more demand for the right infrastructure,” he said.

“The infrastructure is not quite there at the moment, but it’s not that far off. It’s about keeping up with the orders of vehicles - and that includes cars, vans and trucks. We see the requirements needed, and it’s up to us to advise on the networks people need to make the EV journey as simple as possible,” Bevils said.

Spreading the word about long-term EV infrastructure amongst industry leaders is also a challenge that Bevils tackled head on. “CEOs of major organisations need to be well informed and think long term on this,” he said. “Some organisations are installing the wrong equipment. We’re independent and work with future-proofing the infrastructure so it’s not out of date within three years. We’re also very strong on maintenance and looking after infrastructure for the owners. 60% of the time we can fix any problems remotely within three minutes,” he said.

Speeding up the delivery of EV charging points and other sustainable forms of energy on new housing projects is also a passion of Bevils. “The uptake should be better than it is. I think there’s too much focus on profit rather than actual sustainability,” he says. “If you look at other countries in Europe, especially in Nordic countries in northern Europe, they’re so far ahead of us it’s unbelievable. I mean in Germany a couple of years ago air source heat pumps overtook the sale and installation of gas boilers. We’re nowhere near that. And I think, as a responsibility as human beings, we should be putting these things in,” Bevils said.

Asked if the government was doing enough to support the housebuilding sector to speed the delivery of sustainable energy on new developments, Bevils said: “No. I think they could do a lot more. And they should do a lot more to encourage housebuilders. We advise some of the big housebuilders on sustainability and, to be fair, some housebuilders are starting to embrace sustainability now. But the government can and should do more.”

Looking to the future, with significant new investment for EV3 Power now secured, Bevils said: “We have different angles of ambitions. Mine is to become the biggest infrastructure sustainability business in the country. I’ve spent over 20 years in the civil engineering and construction sector, and there’s been a natural progression towards a focus on sustainability. So much so, that this is the most exciting venture I’ve been involved in since starting 20 years ago.”

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