The Real Reason Why Charging is SO Expensive...
Everything Electric Podcast
The Fully Charged Show
4.9 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 16 February 2026
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tom explains why Fastned is moving beyond simple "parking bays with plugs" to build high-visibility, amenity-first charging hubs that keep you sheltered from the rain and your battery topped up at speeds of up to 400kW. They also dive into the "mammoth" joint venture with Places for London (TfL's property arm) and why legal contracts, not just grid power, are often the biggest hurdle to a seamless charging experience.
01:40 Who is Fastned? Petrol Stations for the Electric Age
03:50 Hunting "White Whales": Top Priorities for 2026
05:40 Infrastructure Reality: Is Charging Actually Improving?
07:25 Consistency is Key: Beyond Basic Reliability
09:00 The Magic Number: How Many Chargers per Site?
11:55 Newcastle Airport: The Future of Drive-Through Hubs
14:15 The Northeast Advantage: Why Fastned Started in Sunderland
18:40 The Developer's Headache: Landlords, Power, and Law
21:45 Zombie Projects: Clearing the Grid Connection Backlog
23:33 The Places for London Partnership (Joint Venture)
26:33 The Cost of Charging: Breaking Down Energy & Grid Fees
32:53 Tom Hurst: Transitioning from Consultancy to Infrastructure
36:43 The Industry Wishlist: Simplifying Legal Landscapes
41:13 Conclusion: Designing for the Next 30 Years
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Everything Electric podcast where today we are catching up with Tom Hurst, the UK country director for FastNED. |
| 0:17.1 | Now if you're not familiar with FastNED, you will invari recognize them as the yellow, beautiful structures adorning various charging locations across the UK. |
| 0:26.6 | They have a fast charging network right here in the UK and also across Europe. |
| 0:31.0 | And we're going to be delving into all of your charging questions. |
| 0:35.2 | But before we get to that, a couple of things to tell you. One, please do like and |
| 0:41.2 | subscribe and share with a friend. We really value it. We're not just saying that it does help us out and |
| 0:45.7 | make sure that we can have interesting conversations like the one you're about to listen to with Tom. |
| 0:51.0 | Two, I've got a cold. I apologize. I am a little bit sniffily in this conversation. |
| 0:57.6 | Three, did you know that there are over 88,000 public charges right here in the UK? What an astonishing number. |
| 1:04.5 | So thank you very much, that map for that particular stat. And three, we're about to get into this conversation. |
| 1:10.8 | But first, a very, very |
| 1:13.4 | quick advert break. Our three free YouTube channels on EVs and clean energy tech are funded |
| 1:19.5 | by our fun-packed test drive-tastic events in the North, West and Greater London, and our |
| 1:25.3 | events down under. Next up, Everything Electric North, 26, |
| 1:29.8 | plus check out Everythingelectric.com for merch and much more. Tom, thank you so much for giving |
| 1:35.9 | up your morning this morning to chat to us on the podcast. According to LinkedIn, you are |
| 1:41.3 | UK country director for FastNED, but what does that actually mean? What do you tell |
| 1:46.0 | your friends at dinner parties? So if my friends are ever interested, what I will say is |
| 1:50.9 | Fastnet is the company that builds and operates petrol stations for electric cars. It's that |
| 1:58.1 | simple. We build locations where you can drive into a site, fill your car, your electric car, obviously, with as much energy as possible, as quickly as possible, and get on the go again. |
| 2:07.8 | And if they're a bit more interested or they know a bit more about the EV sector, I'll say, look, we're the guys that build the canopies. |
| 2:14.1 | That's really what the business is. We do that. we operate them, and we give customers a great experience. |
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