Supercharging the UK’s EV revolution with Believ

With a fresh £300 million investment secured to install at least 30,000 charge points across the UK, Believ is leading the way in boosting access to Electric Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure.

Believ, a joint venture between Liberty Global and Zouk Capital, is on a mission to create a network of accessible and reliable electric vehicle charging points so no-one is left behind. It installs, operates and maintains all types of publicly-accessible charge points for both the public and private sectors, ensuring the right charge points are installed in the right locations across the UK.

It’s an exciting time for the company – the latest funding round makes it one of the UK’s best-backed charge point operators. And expansion plans are coming at an opportune time: the government has a target of 300,000 public charge points by 2030, with only about 84,000 currently in place.

In a Q&A with Guy Bartlett, CEO of Believ, we discussed why this investment is so crucial for the UK, the latest news in the EV market, and what’s next for the company – and the EV transition on a whole.

Liberty Global: Congratulations on the funding. Tell us what this means for Believ – and for EV drivers in the UK.

Guy Bartlett: Thank you, this is a landmark moment for us. This £300 million funding gives us the financial certainty and operational runway to deploy at least 30,000 new charge points across the UK. That’s a big step toward closing the gap on the government’s targets, but our ambitions go well beyond the initial goal. Should opportunities emerge to grow further and faster, we have our backers’ full support to scale our targets and access more funds accordingly so that we can target 50,000 new charge points and beyond.

And it’s more than just numbers. It’s signalling private sector confidence in our business model and the industry. The funding is coming from our joint owners, Liberty Global and Zouk Capital alongside four major retail and infrastructure investors – Santander, ABN Amro, NatWest and MUFG. With their backing, we’re indicating we’re industry-leading, commercially sustainable, and a durable long-term partner – to businesses, landlords, local authorities and EV drivers.

We’re also setting roots for the EV revolution in the UK.  When drivers see more charge points going into the ground, especially in places where they live, work, and travel, they’re more likely to make the switch to electric. That means improving air quality, and cutting transport carbon emissions, too. This is precisely the wide impact we want to have.

Liberty Global: You’ve been on a mission to ensure sustainable transport is accessible to everyone, creating a reliable EV charging network across the UK. Tell us about the journey so far – the milestones, the roadblocks, and everything in between.

GB: A lot of the journey is about injecting confidence in the switch to EVs. Electric cars are better in many ways – cleaner, quieter, cheaper to run, more reliable – the list goes on. New cars are arriving all the time with better range, faster charging times and lower purchase price. But without the charging infrastructure, that won’t be enough to accelerate adoption. We have to make sure the energy we provide is cheaper than petrol per mile so that drivers are confident they can afford the switch to begin with. Drivers also need confidence that the chargers will work when they get there and are easy to use. At the same time, we have to give confidence to the private sector capital markets that what we do is investible: people will actually want to charge at the sites that we provide, which puts a lot of responsibility on our site selection tools and commercial modelling to make sure we get it right.

All of this is possible thanks to our highly-skilled team with decades of combined expertise all the way from planning, engineering and build to project management, in-house legal excellence, 24/7 customer service, product development, and more. We have also focused on building strong relationships with local governments and private sector partners to make sure we can work together to provision charging that benefits local communities.

Liberty Global: What sets Believ apart from other charge point operators?

GB: A few things come to mind: it’s our scale, network, and flexibility.

We have weight as a leader in the industry. We’re bolstered by Liberty Global and Zouk Capital’s financing expertise, and we have our delivery partner, Virgin Media O2, which gives us a significant leg up in capacity and speed of hardware installation.

And we have a vision here, one that aligns with the government’s strategy: Cleaner Air for All. This kind of rollout isn’t something the private sector can do alone, so we’ve partnered with councils and businesses alike to co-develop solutions that works for each local community in building our EV charging network. It’s this combination of government collaboration and private investment that we’ve figured out is essential for meaningful impact.

Accessibility is core to what we do. That’s not changing. Much of this new investment will be dedicated to on-street, residential locations designed to help drivers without off-street parking transition to EVs.

Stay tuned because we have a strong pipeline of upcoming projects to announce soon.

Liberty Global: Finally, what excites you most about this next phase for Believ – and the EV industry overall?

GB: It’s the opportunities we’re creating for everybody within the company and in the local communities we work in. Our mission of delivering cleaner air for all has obvious societal benefits and makes all of our jobs feel worthwhile.

The investment we have secured and the growth we are achieving means we’re recruiting a wide range of skills, giving opportunities to younger generations to be part of an exciting industry while retaining some of the top experts in the field.

This is exciting and fulfilling – we see new and creative ideas being put forward all the time. Beyond what we’re doing now, we have ambitions to enter international markets and play a key role by creating and offering UK services across Europe and beyond, based on UK knowhow, ideas, investment and high value jobs.