Waypoint: EV Charge Point Roll Out

Tender process

How did you approach selecting your EV charge point provided of choice?

Waypoint undertook market research across the EV charge point providers and took advantage of market surveys such as Zapmap’s top ten charge point providers to help differentiate between the different providers.

Waypoint underwent a tender process of their top three preferred providers with each provider giving a presentation to Waypoint on how they would work with Waypoint on the EV charge point roll out across their retail portfolio.

Waypoint chose to select an EV charge point provider to deal with their roll out as a process of de risking capital expenditure across their portfolio as the chosen provider would take on the risk/capital costs associated with obtaining power/planning permission for the charge points and associated infrastructure.

Who did you select and why?

Waypoint selected Instavolt as their chosen EV charge point provider due to their consumer feedback reputation for usability and maintenance of their charge points.

Instavolt were also chosen due to their strong grasp on process planning for the installation of the charge points and obtaining power to the charge points. This gave Waypoint comfort that they would take on the burden and pressure of project managing the charge point roll out.

Instavolt were also attractive to Waypoint as they understood the importance of tenant/occupier engagement on retail parks and had built up positive working relationships with a number of the household name retail occupiers.

Exclusivity

Waypoint were happy to agree an initial exclusivity period with Instavolt to enable them to be the charge point provider of choice for all installations across Waypoints portfolio for an agreed period. This was a fair approach for both parties and de risked the project from Waypoint’s perspective as they were happy with the covenant strength of Instavolt.

 

What were the challenges that you had to overcome?

Occupational lease terms

The existing occupational lease terms were the biggest challenge as the long leases granted in the early 2000s include significant restrictions on the use of the car parks, number of spaces which have to be granted for parking use, visibility zones and no built zones.

However, a number of occupational tenants have embraced the addition of EV charge points to retail parks from an ESG and also pull factor benefit as a draw to the retail park.

Powering the charge points

The requirement for additional power for the EV charge points meant the need for new substations to be installed on a number of Waypoint’s retail parks. This meant Waypoint had to consider the existing tenant’s needs and also any future use of the car parks eg pod units being installed and ensuring any substations or associated infrastructure didn’t inhibit future development of the site.

Due to Instavolt’s approach to obtaining power/planning permission, this was relatively seamless and an easy process to follow.

What role did DLA Piper play in the roll out?

DLA Piper were integral in the process of the EV charge point roll out for Waypoint from reviewing initial exclusivity and proposed heads of terms to agreeing the template EV charge point lease with Instavolt which was rolled out across Waypoint’s retail parks.

DLA Piper were able to share market insight into forms of revenue beyond just the parking spaces eg the advertising revenue from the screens on the charge points and the rental models that were being used in the real estate market.

This enabled the process to work seamlessly and for sites to complete within a short space of time once identified due to the agreement of a template and approach to due diligence with Instavolt.

Have you completed any installations yet?

Instavolt have now installed 40 charge points across five of Waypoints sites since they started working with Instavolt in Quarter 4 2022.

What would you do differently next time?

If Waypoint was to run a further roll out on future sites then they would look to ascertain the market rents/rental models and how these have matured since the initial agreement of terms with Instavolt in 2022.