What’s troubling the EV industry in the UK? 3 observations from the eMobility summit

The EV landscape across Europe feels promising, and the UK is no exception. EV Summit UK, which I joined in September 2025, was a great place to take a closer look at eMobility and the themes that keep resurfacing in industry discussions:

• Charging inequality – how access and pricing still depend heavily on where you live.
• Perception of costs – how come many potential EV drivers aren’t aware of the real costs and get stuck with the “EVs are expensive” stereotype.
• Skills and implementation – why local authorities’ willingness to expand charging networks and promote EVs isn’t enough on its own to reach eMobility goals.

Across all three, one thought keeps returning: hardware may lead the transition, but software will make it work.

A bus ride, a notebook, and a lot of curiosity

I arrived in Oxford early, notebook ready and coffee in hand, wondering how much of the UK’s EV enthusiasm I’d actually see.

The electric bus journey already gave away a few clues: charging points near small-town car parks, rows of e-scooters, and more electric cars than I’d expected gliding through narrow streets.

Oxford clearly takes its eMobility seriously – the Energy Superhub Oxford just marked its third anniversary and, in the first half of 2025 alone, powered charging sessions for thousands of EVs. Not bad for a city that still looks like it belongs in a postcard.

The EV Summit took place in the Blavatnik School of Government. The modern glass curves of the building stood out against Oxford’s older stone architecture. And there I was, among EV professionals, policymakers, producers, and innovators from across Europe and beyond.

Let me share a few thoughts that stayed with me after this event.

Charging inequality and the postcode puzzle

It’s easy to assume that charging an EV is simple: you park, plug in, and that’s it. But then you hear that around 40% of UK households don’t have a driveway, and in cities that jumps above 60%, and you start to realise how uneven the picture is. For many people, public charging isn’t a backup. It’s the only option.

Owning an EV can either feel effortless or frustrating, depending on where you live – and that is the postcode puzzle I mention in the header. For example, Coventry apparently has more chargers than Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Newcastle combined. But head to Cornwall or North Yorkshire, and it’s a different story: fewer chargers, longer waits, sometimes none nearby at all. Someone mentioned that to keep up with demand, the UK will need roughly 110,000 more.

For people without driveways, there are some clever ideas on the horizon. At the Summit, I heard about cross-pavement charging – solutions like Kerbo Charge that let drivers safely charge from home even when they park on the street.

But even with better access, there’s still the question of reliability. Thirty-seven per cent of potential buyers say unreliable chargers are what puts them off most. I can see why. If you depend on public charging, you’re trusting that what’s marked available will actually work when you get there.

And that’s where my software brain switched on for a moment. If most people depend on public chargers, the software becomes almost as important as the charging point itself. During one of the talks, the CEO of Paua showed me his iPhone: twelve charging apps open at once, each for a different network. And there are around 108 such apps in the UK alone. No wonder drivers get lost in it all.

What’s missing isn’t another app with a map of dots, but something smarter: live status, pricing, off-peak hints when it’s cheaper or greener to charge, maybe even a quick way to see which networks are most reliable in your area. Apps that actually help you charge, instead of just showing you where to go.

Because in the end, it’s not only about putting up more chargers but about making access predictable, wherever your postcode happens to be. Maybe that’s how we start turning “charge anxiety” into everyday confidence.

True costs and false perception

Money is always an exciting topic at conferences, so it's no wonder it slipped into so many EV conversations in Oxford. Electric cars are still about 20% more expensive than their petrol or diesel equivalents, and although prices are coming down with falling battery costs and new incentives, the gap is still big enough to make people hesitate.

But there’s a surprise once you look beyond the sticker price of a car. The total cost of ownership (insurance, energy, maintenance) often plays in favour of EVs! Yet 80% of surveyed drivers still believe electric cars are “too expensive.”

Then came a statistic that made the room pause: 45% of people don’t know about off-peak electricity tariffs that make home charging dramatically cheaper. And when you compare that with public charging (sometimes 85p per kWh versus 7 or 8p at home overnight), you realise the “EVs are expensive” story is more complicated than it sounds.

It made me think that maybe the challenge isn’t just price or access to private charging points, but clarity. Drivers are surrounded by data – tariffs, rates, charging speeds – yet very few tools help them actually understand it. There’s plenty of room here for EV software development solutions that do more than calculate. Something that translates energy costs into plain language, compares options, and makes “how much will this really cost me?” an easy question to answer.

If we can make the real numbers visible, show what charging actually costs, when it’s cheaper, how it compares, maybe that 80% who still see EVs as too expensive will start to think differently.

Skills and implementation gaps

At one of the panels, a local council representative admitted something that stuck with me: “We have the ambition, but not always the people to make it happen.” It wasn’t said with frustration, more like realism. And it summed up a lot of what’s slowing down the UK’s EV rollout.

The plans exist. The targets are clear. But the capacity to execute? That’s where things falter. Around half of local councils still don’t have a dedicated EV officer, and many rely on temporary projects or short-term consultants to get through procurement. It’s not motivation they’re missing but time, hands, and confidence with technology.

One panellist put it simply: “It’s hard to build something new when every step requires learning the system first.” That line hit me because this is exactly where the right tech people can change the pace.

I thought of the staff augmentation work we do at Happy Team with large logistics enterprises in the UK. We bring in external specialists – data engineers, cloud architects, software developers – to help in-house teams move faster on complex projects. It’s a model that clearly fits e-mobility needs too.

After the summit, I got curious to see if it was used already in public institutions. I came across the Clean Air Zones project, where UK local authorities partnered with a software house to build digital infrastructure for the government’s air-quality programme. The external team delivered key technical components while local authorities stayed focused on coordination, customer support, and education for the business users. Sounds perfect, doesn’t it.

I’m sure there are more examples like this one that show how staff augmentation for eMobility can close the skills gap, whether the investment is public or private.

Wrapping up

I was leaving Oxford with the thought that the EV transition needs the right tools and the right people to push it forward. Hardware will keep evolving, but it’s the e-mobility software development side that quietly connects everything: drivers, chargers, councils, and energy networks.

From smarter EV software companies designing user-friendly apps to flexible tech teams supporting public infrastructure, the shift is already happening. The more collaboration, the closer we get to a transport system that’s not just electric, but efficient and genuinely sustainable.

FAQ

1. What’s the key role of software in eMobility?

Software keeps everything connected. It’s what makes chargers talk to cars, systems talk to councils, and data make sense to users. Good EV software development solutions make networks reliable, show live availability, compare tariffs, and help drivers plan smarter, quietly solving the problems that hardware alone can’t.

2. What is staff augmentation, and how does it help in eMobility projects?

Think of it as a temporary extension of your team when they need it the most. You stay in charge of a roadmap, priorities, and core decisions, while we bring in software engineers to speed up or take over the work. Whether it’s developing EV software, fixing integrations, or improving charging platforms, this setup helps projects fill knowledge gaps and move faster.

3. Can public institutions use staff augmentation for EV infrastructure?

Yes, and some already do – councils handle coordination and communication; the external team take care of the tech. That mix works well!

4. When does CTO-as-a-Service make sense for eMobility companies?

When you need direction, not another developer. Our CTO-as-a-Service supports startups and companies that don’t yet need a full-time CTO. We help choose the right tech stack, set up delivery, and make sure your product grows on solid ground.

5. Where can I learn more about working with external tech teams in eMobility?

Take a look at our staff augmentation for eMobility and eMobility software development pages. You’ll find real examples of how external teams can help you scale faster and build better without adding the long hiring queue in between.