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Hello, I am Ruper Hardreach, the
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managing editor of City AM and I'm here
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with Simon Smith, the chief commercial
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officer of Instabbolt at the Business
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Leader Growth 500 event. Simon, thank
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you for joining us. Could you just give
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me a quick overview of what your
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business does and and and how you're
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growing into this market? Absolutely,
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Robert. So, Instabolt is the largest
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ultra rapid provider in the whole of the
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UK. Uh we have well over 2 and a half
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thousand chargers either in the ground
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or ready to be built. And we're also in
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Spain, Portugal, Iceland, and the
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Republic of Ireland. So that's that's
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ultraast electric vehicle charging.
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Absolutely. So all our charges are 160
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kW and above and they're there for
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drivers that are out on the road and
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need a fast charge 20 to 30 minutes.
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We're positioned in great locations off
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main arterial roads such as motorways or
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a roads and have great FMV such as
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McDonald's cost of coffee Starbucks so a
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driver can stop have a cup of coffee and
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charge at the same time. So what sort of
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growth are you seeing in that market?
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How are how are you coming into the
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market and seeing that growth evolve? So
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at the moment the growth of explosive uh
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we are the largest and we're probably
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one of the most uh the the biggest
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funded we're funded by uh organization
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called EQT who's are investors in our
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business. Yeah. The demand obviously is
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growing rapidly with the push to
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everyone pushing to EVs by 2030 uh in
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line with the government targets. So
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every year for us it just gets better
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because as more cars come on the road
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more utilization onto our charges and
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the trick of this industry is getting
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great sites, great locations. So that's
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what our drivers want and that is what
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we do. And what about uh what are you
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struggling with in this market? Yeah.
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And in terms of challenges Yeah. I mean
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the the the challenge is um in terms of
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challenges uh the time taken for us to
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get those charges in the ground once
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we've decided we want location there is
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difficulties in planning and um and grid
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connections albeit we're working well
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with the government to make that uh more
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feasible. So that's one challenge we
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face is not the opportunity but the
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ability to build quicker because our you
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know our customer base and our own
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growth portfolio requires us putting
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more chares into the ground. Yeah. Yeah.
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So, that's one challenge. Um, I think
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the other challenge is more to do with
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knowing how quickly the industry is
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going to grow because we need to have
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enough charges out there for our drivers
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to feel confident when they buy cars
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that they're they don't have range
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anxiety. What we don't have control over
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is how quickly those EVs are coming to
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market. Yeah. Um, but over the last few
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months, in fact, probably the last 6
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months, there's been a rapid growth in
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EVs. And so we are feeling the impact of
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that across our own network as we
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continue to see utilization growth.
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Yeah. And and what are you most excited
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about uh from the company perspective
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over the next 5 to 10 years? I'm excited
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about uh the exponential growth uh the
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fact that we are really helping the UK
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and our locations in Europe become uh
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less uh less reliant on uh ice and
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petrol vehicles. So, of course, we're
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helping the environment. So, I'm really
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excited. I'm working part of a business
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that's doing good. Um, and I'm also
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really excited about the future in terms
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of where the industry is going. Um, and
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how much the growth is endless for us
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quite frankly. Um, and as long as this
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market compels to adapt and more EVs and
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longer ranges come to the market, we've
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got more and more opportunity to support
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that industry through our brilliant
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rapid charging solutions. Well, that
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sounds very interesting. Thank you very
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much for your time today, Simon. Very
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good. Thank you, Rubbert.
