Kerbo Charge goes live in Hertfordshire

Electric dreams for Hitchin as town achieves UK first

Kerbo Charge is live in Hitchin!

A local resident became Customer One for Kerbo Charge that allows drivers without off-street parking to safely and cheaply charge their cars at home. Kerbo Charge will save the resident £1,506 per year (when she charges off-peak) and significantly reduces the hassle of charging her car. 

Prior to 10 January when the installation took place, she had to drive up to two miles to a nearby chargepoint every time she needed to power up her car.

Now she has a wall-mounted charger and a specially-designed polymer channel with a self-closing lid in the pathway outside her house. To charge her car, she simply lays the cable into the channel, closes the lid and starts charging via an app. 

Kerbo Charge was launched via the influential Fully Charged Show, with presenter Jack Scarlett describing it as ‘so beautifully simple I wish I’d thought of it myself’. The company was flooded with requests from people across the UK desperate to sign up, with Hitchin selected as the first site

Kerbo Charge Co-Founder Michael Goulden says, “The reception from electric vehicle drivers has been phenomenal across the UK, but we’ve been particularly impressed by the interest from drivers in Hertfordshire who represented a whopping 15% of all national enquiries. 40% of the UK population don’t have off-street parking and the top two reasons given for not buying an electric car are the inability to safely charge at home and the cost of public charging. Kerbo Charge is here to change that”.

Kerbo Charge will shortly be available to any resident living on a private road, with the start-up partnering with local councils to roll out to homes adjoining public pavements later in the year. The first council to come on-board is Milton Keynes, launching a trial in February 2023.

Welwyn Garden City resident Saviour Mathew said, “I’m desperate to get Kerbo Charge as it’s costing me so much to charge my car and I hate having to drive to a public charging point. I’m calling on Hertfordshire County Council to let all of us who don’t live on private roads take advantage of it as soon as possible”.