PayThru is looking to rip up the customer experience rulebook when it comes to electric vehicle charging. John Challen finds out its plans.

You know that moment when you jump on a video call and the people at the other end are talking Police Academy films? No, me neither. Not until my chat with the guys at PayThru, a company founded 14 years ago and designed to make payments by mobile easier – initially in parking, but the business has naturally evolved into charging.

The fact that the initial topic of conversation was so far removed from what followed was testament to an atmosphere at a company that has evolved and embraced new ways of working. The chat took place in a relaxed environment, but the message was clear: PayThru is working hard to help fleets – and believes it has the capabilities to do so.

“One of the biggest frustrations in the EV market for us is that companies have worked on the hardware and software and created a product, but it’s one that’s not necessarily providing the best customer journey,” says James O’Neill, CEO of PayThru. “We want to make things easier and remove the pain points. To do that we’ve brought like-minded people into the business who share that passion.”

James O’Neill, CEO of PayThru

One example is the company’s director of future fleet, Sara Sloman, who is also a director at The EV Café, founded to bring the electric vehicle community together to discuss ideas and solutions – as well as challenges – for the future of transportation.

“I had spent enough time watching infrastructure being created, knowing that it wasn’t being designed or rolled out for the mass adoption of fleet,” she says. “The learnings that I’d had working with fleets of different sizes – including very early adopters – showed me that the driver experience is often ignored. At the moment, I feel the equipment and the vehicles are coming and the infrastructure is looking after itself. But we’re in serious danger of building something that doesn’t have longevity or usability for the end-user, which, in this case, is the driver.”

So how does PayThru intend to change things? Well, one solution is grazEV. Headaches for fleets running EVs include not knowing when to charge vehicles, where to charge them and what to do when they are charging. With the grazEV app, PayThru hopes to address those issues and try to ensure that the driver thinks about the charging experience as little as possible.

“Drivers, through some telemetry and telematics within the grazEV app, will be informed when the vehicle needs to charge and, through their feedback we can also ascertain what the driver likes,” explains Sloman. “Those preferences can include food, the routes they regularly take and the charge point operators in the area. With that information, the app will give the driver options: for example, would they like to charge at somewhere that has a food outlet they like?”

Sloman says that PayThru research finds that drivers typically take three breaks a day, the longest being 30 minutes and others between 10 and 15 minutes. In that time, she reckons, there’s the ability to sufficiently replenish the battery (as well as the driver!), assuming the technology works as advertised.

“You then don’t have to go through what drivers are currently doing, which is waiting until the end of the day, recharging to full and taking the vehicle to where it’s going to stay overnight,” she says. “If you graze as you go throughout the day – when you’re doing your daily routine anyway – you can end the day with a decent charge.”

Director of future fleet, Sara Sloman

The idea is branching out beyond PayThru’s core offering, but the transactional aspect is still a major consideration.

“We’re trying to make sure that the payment process is seamless as well,” confirms Sloman. “There’s no confusion or concern about the payment not going to the right place – the driver doesn’t even have to have a preference over which charger they use.

“When you have a fuel card or a fleet card and you’re tied to a certain charge point operator, you might have to go seven or eight miles out of your way – which is nuts because you’re passing perfectly serviceable and available charges,” she reasons. “The other thing that inspires me is the ability for charge point operators to sweat their assets and encourage drivers to come to their sites that would otherwise be underutilised during the daytime.”

As mentioned earlier, the PayThru gang are determined to get grazEV to the level that gives users exactly what they deserve.

“Drivers will see that it’s a lovely interface and it’s very simplistic to use,” says Sloman. “But, behind the scenes, there’s a lot going into it to make sure that that’s really flexible and has the right feedback loop.”

With that promise, I break off from the call, to leave Sloman and O’Neill to carry on talking about 1980s comedy films. But also to work out the perfect combinations of chargers and coffee outlets.