Thousands of myenergi EV Chargers to Help Openreach Charge Vans at Home
Openreach (BT), which is currently in the process of converting the “majority” of their commercial UK vehicle fleet (i.e. 23,000 vans and cars) to Electric Vehicles by the end of March 2031, has announced a new deal that will see myenergi supply thousands of smart ‘zappi’ EV chargers to its engineers – giving them a simple way to charge vehicles at home overnight.
The move supports the broadband operator’s wider plan to become a zero emissions / Net Zero business by March 2031. So far, Openreach has already converted 5,000 of their diesel-powered vans and cars to EVs and over 2,500 chargers have been installed to support that effort, but today’s deal means that many more will now follow and in a much more domestic setting.
The ‘zappi’ chargers are said to offer fast and flexible charging at up to 22kW and smart modes that can also make the most of solar and off-peak tariffs. The installations will be carried out by OVO Energy. At the same time, Openreach will significantly expand its charging network with new chargers at hundreds of its operational sites nationwide.
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All of this forms part of a £3m investment in charging infrastructure to help remove one of the biggest practical barriers to EV adoption.
Judy O’Keefe, Director of Fleet at Openreach, said:
“We’re making strong progress on our journey to net zero, having invested in more than 5,000 electric vans and more than 2,500 home chargers already. Switching the majority of our fleet to electric by 2031 is a big challenge but this partnership is another important step – giving our engineers smart, reliable charging at home to support a greener future.
We’ve also introduced an incentive programme to encourage smarter charging habits, focusing on home charging and using selected public Charge Point Operators. These incentives range from behind-the-barrier access to night-time discounts and driver perks.”
Andrew Clint, CEO of myenergi, said:
“We’re delighted that Openreach staff will soon be charging their new plug-in vehicles with zappi chargers. Transitioning such an extensive fleet is no mean feat, but developing the necessary infrastructure to ensure drivers can charge up at home is a huge step forward.
With zappi, staff will benefit from one of the world’s smartest EV chargers – simple, intuitive and specifically designed to streamline the home charging process. Thanks to the myenergi app, you can control zappi, and the wider myenergi home energy management system (HEMS), with the touch of a button. Quick, simple and sustainable. It’s another important part our mission to accelerate the UK’s transition to sustainable transport and our commitment to powering the future of fleet electrification.”
Openreach currently plans to add a further 2,000 EVs to its fleet by the end of March 2026. The company has also previously built a partnership with First Bus, so engineers can charge their vans at First Bus depots, taking pressure off public charging points and making life easier for those who live in flats.
Most of the network operator’s latest EVs have come from four manufacturers – Ford, Stellantis (Vauxhall), Toyota, and Renault.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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So, the latest plan for OpenReach to save money is to get their engineers to charge their vans at home. Pass the costs onto the engineers electricity bill rather than the company’s.
I doubt that. Unless somebody knows otherwise, they’re almost certain to have a system in place to reimburse, as would be normal practice for such costs.
We use Allstar and it’s automatically paid to the energy company.
How have you com to that conclusion? Loads of the engineers already park at home and many with the EVs charge their vans at home, where possible. If Openreach are paying for the charger installation and the fuel/electricity expenses, surely it’s a benefit for the homeowner rather than a sneaky cost saving exercise? The piece also says the engineers will get access to cheaper energy tariffs – presumably using BT’s buying power…
The cheap tariff comes from overnight charging using a smart charger and smart meter.
Weird statement.
Zappi chargers can handle multiple accounts. I suspect it’ll go directly to Open reach.
22kW would need a 3-phase supply, which is entirely possible but unusual in UK houses. On one phase you get up to 7.4kW – 30mph or so.
No go back and read the article properly and maybe edit your comment that insults your intelligence.
Most likely not, my company Go electrik Ltd has just start a partnership with our local council down on the south Coast, BCP. We install chargers for employees at their homes to charge the fleet vehicles. They use RFID tags to initiate the charge, all the useage is tracked and the employee is automatically reimbursed by the council every month.
Nice little bonus for the OR engineers who are considering replacing their own car with an EV, now get a free home charger!
Also a significant contract for a small UK manufacturer and the thousands of electricians who will pick work up as a result.
They used to use Ground control for their chargers but ground control said that Openreach were an absolute nightmare to deal with
Were they floating in a most peculiar way?