Charlie Cook, Founder and CEO at Rightcharge

Fleet1000 speaks to Charlie Cook, Founder and CEO of Rightcharge, on software over hardware, their latest solution and why home charging remains the industry’s biggest untapped opportunity

“90% of our fleet drivers are still on standard electricity tariffs when they could be charging at a fraction of the cost.”

Charlie Cook’s route into fleet software began with a much broader interest in climate and energy. After studying engineering, then moving to Melbourne to specialise in climate science, he spent two years at CERN working on next-gen particle collider technology. On his move back to London, Charlie joined Octopus Energy during its early growth phase and became the first employee within Octopus Electric Vehicles.

Working on EV charging products and services exposed him to the operational and payment challenges slowing EV adoption, eventually leading him to launch Rightcharge in 2020 to focus on solving them through software and reimbursement technology for fleets.

In this Fleet1000 conversation, Charlie explains why reimbursement and payment systems have become critical to successful electrification, where fleets are still losing money through inefficient charging behaviour, and how new initiatives like Rightcharge’s Gold Card are changing the economics of public charging for operational fleets.

What made you shift the focus towards fleets, and what problems did you identify in the market?

"We started looking seriously at fleet around 2023, and there were a couple of key reasons behind that.

"The first was recognising that the majority of EVs are actually purchased by businesses rather than consumers. Typically, around 60% of EVs in the UK are bought by businesses. We have always wanted to make the biggest impact possible, so focusing on the largest buyer group made sense.

"From there, the question became: what is stopping fleets from electrifying faster? That question has really shaped the direction of the company ever since.

"There are two major areas we focus on. The first is reducing charging costs. There are actually many different ways to reduce charging costs, which makes this area particularly exciting. Unlike fuel, where there are limited opportunities to reduce spend, charging offers much more flexibility. Today, we help fleets reduce costs both through public charging and home charging. On the public charging side, we recently launched the Gold Card, which offers some of the strongest savings opportunities available to fleets in the UK.

"The second area is home charging. Wherever fleets have the opportunity for vehicles to be charged at employees’ homes, we want to remove every possible barrier preventing that from happening. Last year, we completed a case study with The AA which showed that enabling home charging for drivers saved around £1,000 per vehicle annually on average."

Why did Rightcharge focus on payment and reimbursement software rather than hardware and charging infrastructure?

"There are probably two parts to that answer.

"The first is simply understanding where our strengths were as a business. When we launched, we created the UK’s first comparison website for EV home energy tariffs. Combined with my background at Octopus Energy, that gave us significant exposure to the energy supply market and strong relationships with suppliers across the country.

"That expertise turned out to be incredibly valuable when we built our home charging reimbursement technology.

"One of the major problems with existing reimbursement systems at the time was that tariff rates were manually entered by drivers and not automatically updated if they switched tariffs or suppliers. Even if drivers were acting honestly, people could still forget to update the information, leading to underpayment or overpayment.

"We built a system that automatically checks a driver’s tariff rates directly with their energy supplier. For example, if a driver plugs in at 7pm and unplugs at 7am, we can verify the exact tariff rates that applied during that charging session. That removes both reporting errors and issues caused by tariff switching.

"The second part is that, from our perspective, hardware is no longer the biggest challenge for fleets. There are already many strong hardware options available. Where we saw the real opportunity for innovation was on the payment side, both for public charging and home charging."

Where are fleets seeing the biggest impact from Rightcharge’s services?

"It really depends on where a fleet is in its electrification journey.

"For fleets that are still relatively early in the process, the biggest challenge is often simply figuring out how to reimburse drivers accurately for home charging. Fleet managers want employees to feel confident they are being reimbursed correctly, while also ensuring there is no misuse of the system, such as charging personal or third-party vehicles.

"At that stage, the focus is primarily on efficiency, administration and unlocking the ability for employees to charge at home confidently. Interestingly, fleet managers at this stage often care more about enabling home charging than reducing public charging spend, because the savings from home charging can be so substantial.

"For fleets that already have home charging working well, the conversation shifts more towards public charging costs.

"At that point, fleets are typically asking how they can reduce public charging spend as they scale their EV operations. Public charging remains a significant pain point, especially as electricity prices have risen alongside fuel costs."

What trends are you seeing around public charging costs and pricing?

"Unfortunately, we don’t currently see any major reason why public charging prices will dramatically reduce on their own.

"The main exception could come from potential government changes to the energy market, specifically around separating electricity pricing from gas pricing. If implemented, that could help reduce electricity costs more broadly, although those changes may take time. Outside of that, however, we’re not expecting major reductions in electricity prices themselves.

"What we are seeing instead is public charging networks becoming much more interested in fleet-specific pricing agreements. Fleets provide charging operators with high utilisation and consistent volume, which makes them very attractive customers. As a result, networks are increasingly willing to offer preferential pricing structures.

"That trend is really what enabled us to launch the Gold Card."

Can you explain how the Gold Card works?

"We launched the Gold Card just over a month ago with four major UK charging networks: BP Pulse, IONITY, Sainsbury's Smart Charge and BeEV.

"Through the Gold Card, fleets can access rapid and ultra-rapid charging at 59p/kWh and fast charging at 49p/kWh. That’s typically up to 35% cheaper than using contactless payment or alternative fleet charging solutions.

"The network also gives fleets access to more than 10,000 chargers nationwide, so the coverage is really strong."

FleetWise previously reported that, on trial, the Gold Card substantially cut public charging costs. Find out more about that, here.

What opportunities do you see emerging around home charging?

"Home charging is particularly exciting because there’s still a huge opportunity to reduce costs further. 

"Currently, around 90% of our fleet drivers are on standard electricity tariffs, meaning they’re typically paying between 25p and 27p per kWh. Many of those drivers could switch to EV-specific tariffs offering rates between roughly 3.5p and 7p per kWh, which is a very significant reduction.

"The challenge is that, particularly for operational fleets with limited private mileage, employees often have little incentive to switch tariffs because the savings mainly benefit the employer rather than the driver.

"We’re currently exploring ways to share some of those savings with drivers in order to create stronger incentives for adoption – which is an exciting look into the future."

What does good EV charging and payment management look like for fleets?

"The number one thing fleets should focus on is maximising the opportunity for home charging. We still regularly see fleets that are not fully enabling home charging for their drivers, often because of administrative or data concerns.

"The first step is understanding what barriers exist internally and then looking at the solutions available to remove them.

"Beyond that, things become more nuanced. Simply instructing drivers to use cheaper chargers is harder than you’d think, because infrastructure availability varies significantly depending on routes and operational requirements. You don’t want drivers travelling far off route just to save a few pence on a charging session.

"That’s one of the reasons we developed the Gold Card: to provide wide coverage while still lowering charging costs."

What leadership lessons have shaped how you built Rightcharge?

"The biggest lesson is to stay relentlessly focused on customer problems. That applies to any market, but especially one that’s evolving as quickly as EV charging. 

"It’s always tempting to pursue ideas that seem exciting internally, but if they’re not solving meaningful customer problems, they rarely create real value. The best decisions come from understanding customer concerns and letting those shape where you invest and innovate.

"The second lesson is to never be afraid to invest heavily in customer experience. You can’t really over-invest in customer support. Fast responses, picking up the phone quickly and making customers feel looked after creates enormous long-term value.

"It might mean significant investment into a support team, but when customers trust that you’ll be responsive and fair, and that you’re always there to talk, it creates outcomes that you simply can’t replicate through marketing alone."

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