In Episode 192 Gary looks at some of the data and insights that come out of the Zapmap software and what they can do with that data.

What exactly is the Insights department and how do they provide help for Zapmap and the general public?

Guest Details:

With more than 10 years’ experience in the data and insights industry, Jade Edwards joined Zapmap in April 2022 to lead the Insights side of the business. It's her role to look at the data that sits behind the Zapmap app, explore how to put it to best use, and identify channels through which to share it with the wider industry, government and media. Before joining Zapmap, Jade worked across a range of roles heading up operations, product and sales teams. As the leading source of EV charging data and insights, Jade’s Insights team now provides unrivalled data and expert analysis into the shape and usage of EV charging infrastructure, as well as the attitudes and behaviours of EV drivers.

@zap_map on X

Jade on YouTube

@zapmap_company on Instagram

Jade's Website

If you want to contact the insights department at Zapmap email: insights@zap-map.com

This season of the podcast is sponsored by Zapmap, the free to download app that helps EV drivers search, plan, and pay for their charging.

Links in the show notes:

• How EV ready is your constituency?
• The Eco Cricket movement - - A Cool Thing
• Electric Vehicle Charging Statistics 2023 | Zapmap
• The Public Charge Point Regulations 2023 - - The official legislation

Episode produced by Arran Sheppard at Urban Podcasts: https://www.urbanpodcasts.co.uk

(C) 2019-2024 Gary Comerford

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Hi, I'm Gary and this is episode 192 of EV musings, a podcast about renewables, electric vehicles, and things that are interesting to electric vehicle owners. On the show today we'll be looking at zap map and what they got hidden underneath the covers Data Wise.

This season the podcast is sponsored by Zapmap the free to download app that helps EV drivers search plan and pay for their charging. Before we start, I want to thank everyone who retweets links and helps promote this podcast across the socials. It helps me greatly whenever anybody retweets or repost or re to saw whatever action your social media app of choice requires you to do this episode across the internet, I'm always happy to see the word spread about podcast. Thank you very much. Our main topic of discussion today is data. And more specifically, charger and charging data. As you know, this podcast is sponsored by Sam map. And the vast majority of people who use that map know it for one or more of the three key things and it does locate charges, navigate surcharges, pays for charging. So those are the three key features. But what a lot of people don't know or know but don't realise the extent of is that Matt and GABA a huge amount of data related to each charger and its usage. Some of this data is provided on a summarised monthly basis to indicate the number of new charges installed on a given month. Some of its use to determine the average cost of charging at various types of charges. But there's a huge amount of additional data that we as end users don't generally get to see us or understand. Now that map has a whole unit called the insights unit that investigate this data. And I'm delighted to welcome Jade Edwards the head of insights at Zapmap to the show.

Hi, Gary, nice to be here.

Can you start by giving me your EV journey? How did you come to the EV space?

Yes, so I worked for about 12 years in a data and insights consultancy. And in financial services. Not in the EV space dealing mainly with insurance and general insurance at that. So car insurance was probably the closest link. What I was looking for when I was moving on for that role was I didn't know whether to go in something that was kind of nonprofit or something in the charity sector. But I just knew I wanted to do something where I felt I was really having more of an impact, something that I could be really, really passionate about the whole industry, not just my particular role within it. And when the role came up at Zapmap, I was really excited. And then was really, really keen to try and make that happen and was successful. So I was really thrilled to join the team and get into the EV charging world.

Let's let's talk Zapmap itself. Now many people think that it just produces that fantastic app that finds chargers. But there's way more to it than that. So talk to me a little bit about the insights department itself and why it was set up and what he does.

Yeah, so the the role of insights within Zapmap really is to take the data that sits behind the app, refine it, package it, analyse it, and then share it with our many stakeholders. And so from EV drivers and the industry sort of publicly so via our stats pages in the reports, we put out, news items and stories, as well as then commercially to our clients and partners who could be charged point operators, utilities, companies, consultancies, government bodies, local authorities, things like that.

Wow. Okay, let's, let's break that down a little bit. Now, you talked about the data that's gathered by the app. And obviously as a Zapmap user, I know that you've got locations of charges, you've got some of the chat that that is added by users, check in and that sort of stuff. And you've also got the data for a number of the CPOs where you ping to to check that it's still up, that the charger is actually still available, et cetera. Now, is that the data we're talking about? or is there other stuff behind that, that we may - I as an end user may not necessarily see but which you, as Zapmap have access to?

Yeah, that's the majority of what we work with on a daily basis at the moment. So certainly the locations of all the charge points, as you said, we've got - we estimate - over 95% of all the UK public charge points on the app, then the availability of them and that's for over 70% showing where we've got that availability so we can utilise that data as well. Another key aspect is our, our Zapmap users. So we have asked people when they register, whether they'd like to be on our survey panel, and one of the things we do is on an annual basis we do, we believe it's the UK's largest EV driver survey. And we actually go out to the to the panel of EV drivers and ask them what they think about the public charging network about the experience that they've been having.

Take me through the technical aspect of this. Is the data that you get, is it, analysed from the underlying database record, by record, charger by charger, comment by comment, or does it have to go through some sort of an aggregation process, which summarises that data that, that, the insights team look at? Is there, you know, how does that work?

Yeah, it's a bit of a mix, really, we obviously review all the data that we've got before we then look at passing that out in any form, whether that's on the map directly to EV drivers, or whether it's something that we've done with it and how we share it through the insights team, we can provide some of that data at really quite a granular level. So down to the specific details of a specific charger. Other areas, we look at more aggregated. So when we're trying to understand the usage of the public charging network, then that we look at it in a more aggregated way to understand what's the average number of sessions that might be happening per day, in a particular region of the UK, for example. And ditto with the information we'd get from our Zapmap users that would be looked at in a more aggregated way to understand patterns of how different groups of users might be experiencing the public charging network.

From a usage point of view, you've obviously got this data and you've talked there about how some of its aggregated and some of its down at the detail level. Did you have internal customers within Zapmap who are saying I need this, I need that I need this at this level? Or are you providing that all that data out at various levels of abstraction and the other parts of Zapmap are actually using it for whatever they want? Is it a push or a pull type of situation?

We provide information and insight across the business. And so some of it is on request from the areas if they're looking at perhaps the subscriptions that we've gotten trying to understand what's happening there, what what can we offer to our EV drivers that would really add value. So we can help and support in those kinds of areas. We also provide lots of kinds of Mi for the business as well so that we can track the growth of the users on the app, for example, and understand how the business is growing in different ways. But the main thing that we do is that push of information out outside of that Zapmap, and out into the market or to the public. So we have the stats pages, where we look at the number of charging points and the growth over time, we have the price index, where we've been reviewing the number of sessions that happen across the different networks and the price points of those. So then we can see actually what's the average price that drivers are paying for their public charging. And then we're also pushing information out through partners, and like Department for Transport, for example. So they're fantastic reporting that they do, looking down to a local authority level on the numbers of charge points across the UK, that's information that we provide to them. And then they do further analysis and and get those reports on a monthly and quarterly basis too

Interesting. Now, obviously, with a name like insights, there's an expectation that somehow your department will turn up one day and say something like, you know, we'd been looking at the data. And it seems that on a Tuesday after a bank holiday more people charge using 50 kilowatt chargers than any other day of the year. Now, obviously, that's a bit of an extreme example, but is it like that? Or are you just looking at specific things that people have requested? Is there an element of let's see what's hidden in the data that we might not see at the moment?

Oh, yeah, there's definitely an element is that the team are really passionate about what they do and about trying to get the best out of the information that we've got at hand. So we're always looking at the data in new and interesting ways to try and drive more value out of it. Because there is, you know, we have got this wealth of information, and we need to make sure that we're using that to its best advantage and help that to create kind of real impact out in the market and help drive the transition overall. So it is, you know, a bit of questions being asked in, but also I was looking at things and trying to pick out actually what's going on and what what's really interesting here.

So let me put my job interview question on and give me an example of something where you've, where you've done that you've looked at the data and you found something specifically that you weren't looking at but which turned out to be ultimately very interesting.

One thing that we've done recently that we actually did with Systra, and the committee for climate change on the report they've been working on, was looking at the number of charging sessions across the strategic road network. And trying to understand where do the peaks happen in those charging sessions. And something that we saw within that was that when you broke the strategic road network down into very different routes, across the UK, you could see some really, really big differences at the peak time of travel. So for example, we looked at a route that was from Cambridge, down to Brighton. And for that route along strategic road network at peak times, then the average number of sessions per device per day was up at around 10 sessions. Whereas we also looked at a route that went from Peterburg, to Great Yarmouth, along that route, it was the peak was down as low as four sessions per device per day. So that you really see that kind of variation around where you might expect, actually the peak would possibly be similar erm, across different kinds of routes when you're you're purely looking at a number of sessions per day. But even at that level, you can see some real differences.

Ah, that's interesting. Now, obviously, you've you've got a lot of data here, some of which is CPO specific. And some of which is general, do you get requests in from specific CEOs for additional data that you may be able to provide that will help them augment the data that they're already getting from charging sessions on their networks?

Yes, yeah, we have really good relationships with lots and lots of the CPOs across the UK. And we worked really closely with them. So they will come to us. And we'll we'll provide additional information so that they can see how, how are they positioned within the market? Understand, you know, they can see obviously, they're own performance really, really well, but trying to understand actually, what does that look like more competitively? And how can they think about where they're positioned within the market and where they want to be? So yeah, we worked really closely with them on those those kinds of fronts.

And where is that dividing line, because I know if I was CPO, A, and I had all my own data in house, and I know that you as Zapmap, have a lot of data relating to our competitor CPO B, who may be running along the same routes, the specific routes that you were talking about there. At what point do you say, Well, no, actually, I can't give you that data for CPO B because it's nothing to do with you. And at what point do you say, well, actually, yes, some of that is available for sale, is there a demarcation line there?

Yeah, there definitely is. And we've worked with the CPOs over the years to build those positions, so that it's actually really clearly understood between different CPOs what we can share what we can't, and we don't cross any of those lines, because it's really important for us to be trusted within the industry, and to be impartial. Where our role is Zapmap, whether Zapmap Insights or Zapmap as a whole, is we want to help the EV drivers better navigate the public charging network. And we want to support the CPOs to do the very best job that they can do. So we want them all to be successful. We want that fantastic network out there for evey drivers to use. So it's really important to us that we partner with them, and we support them. And we drive things forward positively. And it's a really collaborative industry. So although individual CPOs obviously are competing, you'll see them together on panels and in conferences in so many ways, collaborating, supporting each other and helping to drive things forward. Because everybody wants the same outcome at the end of the day.

I did an episode last season on hubs. And I spoke to Melanie and she spoke to Paul and who presumably spoke to you. And you provided me with a nice chunk of data on all the hubs around the country with four or more DC chargers split by charge point operator, how easy is it to go into the system and provide that information? Is it actually a chunk of work? Or is that like a - check out how old I am now, is that an SQL statement that will do that or what what's what's the mechanism behind it?

Yeah, all those kinds of requests. It's varying amounts of work to get that data but All the data we have is, is brought into Zapmap from all the individual CPOs, we cleanse all that data. We onboard it, we store it, we refine all that data. So a lot of that work has already been done by the data team within Zapmap to make sure that then that data can be pushed out to the app. So we already have it in a really accessible format. And then the insights team are then querying that. So yeah, like you would say, with the with SQL queries, and things like that we're querying that data, and looking at it in different ways. And actually, one of the questions you asked earlier, where you asked about where we found, insights that we weren't expecting, one of those was actually, with regards to the hubs. Because when we had a look at that data, we were expecting, we looked at it across all different regional areas of the UK. And we thought, we're probably going to see that it's a very big concentration in London and the southeast. And that's what people would expect. But what does it actually look like? And when we pull that data out, that's when we discovered that actually, for every geographical area, around the UK, excluding unfortunately, Northern Ireland, they had at least 10 hubs, and there was huge growth across all those areas. So that was something that then you know, kind of surprised us, and we wanted to put out there in the market and, and get out there in the media as well. That's another thing that we try and do is get supporting information out to the media. And that was a great story that shows actually, there's a there's a lot of investment going in across all the different regions of the UK. It's not just a London/SE centric situation. So that was another piece that that's come out recently, where we've been able to put out some really positive information out not only to the market, but also that's got picked up in the mainstream media as well.

I know, one of the things that surprised me about that data. When it arrived, obviously, I look at the finger at the bottom, how many hubs have we got, and in my, in my mind, we had, you know, 60 70, 80 hubs across the whole of the country. And then I look at I forget what the exact figure was, but I think it was somewhere up around 300 separate hubs across the UK at the moment, which was just mind blowing. And then of course, you've just recently released data that indicate that that has increased by 50% in the last 12 months.

Yes, it depends, again, typical insights and data, so i think, it depends how you cut the data. But the way we looked at it, for our purposes this time was we looked at the hubs and defined them as where there are at least six rapid or ultra rapid devices. So for them, we've got 196 at the moment around the UK, and that's more than double the number that were in place a year ago.

Right. So I went for four or more, you went for six or more. Fair enough. Now, we've talked a little bit, we've talked quite a lot about the kinds of data you've got, we've talked about the customers that that you have both internal and external. Is the insights department, a profit centre, or a cost centre? Do you sell the data externally? Or do you give it away?

We do both. So we give a lot of data away. And then we also sell it. So yeah, we've got commercial partnerships, as well as partnerships, where we're providing information out there supporting reports and papers and things like that, too.

And what's the demarcation line on that? Because at some point, you're gonna have to say, well, this data is free this data's free, this data you're gonna have to pay for, is that a level of aggregation? Or, or is it just the the quantity, the type of data that you're providing yourself, which determines whether it becomes something that you sell or something that you provide free of charge,

Erm it can be to do with either the type of the data or the usage of the data, whether it's something that we feel is really important that supports the wider industry, and helps that transition to zero emission vehicles, then we'll provide more data on that for free, and things that help EV drivers understand what's happening, and at a level that's relevant to them, then we'll make sure we're providing that information. And then when it gets more detailed, or it's for very specific parties, then that's where it will become commercial.

Now taught me a little bit about the data that you provided for EVA England recently, they produced a I think they call it a constituency map, which broke down the country into specific constituencies and there was a lot of underlying data there from numerous sources, one of which I believe was a Zapmap. Is that correct?

Yes, it's absolutely correct. It's a partnership that we've been working on for a while and we're really excited to see that map finally go live. You know, has taken a lot to get to this point and the EVA team have been working tirelessly on that one. So yeah, really excited to see that out, we've provided a summary of all the public charge points in the UK and split them down by whether they were rapids and ultra rapids or whether they were on streets. And we kind of took the Tesla's separately as well, so that they could produce this map, which you could look at constituency by constituency and see, actually, what are the the types of charges that are going that are in that constituency? Look at that by the number of births that are in constituency. And then I think there's also pulled in there's really information in interest and information on air quality, as well. But yeah, that's a really great tool. And yeah, really pleased to see that go live.

I want to sort of drop down and become a little bit geeky on this. Because if I'm looking at this from a data point of view, the the way that that data is actually classified, because you've said yourself, there's constituents, it's broken down by constituents in a way, I don't believe for one second that when somebody set Zapmap up, they said, We're going to have a data field that talks about constituency, and we're going to be able to track stuff by constituency. So at some point, either that data has then been entered retrospectively, or that data field has been entered retrospectively, or somebody has taken the data out and manipulated it externally, to map postcodes to constituencies. What was that process? Like?

Oh, you are getting into the detail. Now, Gary? This is where Tim, one of our analysts will be listening to this podcast and going Jade better get this right. So yeah, what we did on that was we pulled the data out at postcode level. And then we got postcode mappings, basically for all the constituencies in the UK, and matched that together.

So the corollary question that goes with that is, is there a certain process that you have where you look through and you go, right, we've got X number of data tables with X number of fields in there, which will give us the ability to slice and dice data certain number of ways. But wouldn't it be good if we had an additional data field that did this? And then you extend the data tables to capture that data? Or are you always working - I wouldn't say always - , are you working retroactively? To say 'Oh right now we've got, for example, constituency data? So we can put that into the database? Is it? Are you able to proactively or retroactively to extend the data, the fields that are in the database?

It's a bit of a mix of both. Really. Yeah, there's certain areas where we're saying, Oh, this would now be really interesting to look at. So one of the things recently that one of the analysts wanted to look at was by classifying the session data that we get in by days of the week, and also whether is it a bank holiday? Is that a weekend day? Is it week day? And what you know, was it Christmas Day, all that kind of thing. So actually building in tables like that, that then we can match that data to? So you can see patterns that jump out. From looking at it that way. So that's one way it's just been, oh, let's have a look at that. And let's build that in as well. And then other ones will come like this constituency one where it's a specific project where we want to look at it in a certain way. So yeah, it's a bit of both that some of them will be things that we want to collect additionally, in the data, others will be that we can add that information afterwards, when we're doing analysis. So yeah, makes a base really,

because the other aspect to that it's okay, having a whole load of a whole database full of data, and be able to extract that. But at some point, you've got to be able to visualise that in a way that makes sense. So what sort of tools do you have that allow you to take some of that data and look at it in a way where the insights will pop out a lot easier than they would if you're having to pull through sheet after sheet after sheet of spreadsheet data? For example?

Yeah, we can, we can look at the data, either through dashboards and look at it that way we can look at it, we're doing more looking at it spatially. So looking at heat maps, and things like that, with the spatial data. So yeah, there's lots of different ways that that we work with that data within the business and different ways. We'll be starting to share that as well on the website, for example. So we start to share more in infographics and things like that as well to try and get the messages out and get them across in a simpler way. Because it is just, you know, lots and lots of numbers. So trying to find different ways to visualise that and simplified a message is really important.

And I think that's something I've definitely noticed on the The stats page on on the website, there's definitely more improved visualisations of a lot of the data. And in fact, I say the thing that you sent out this morning, showing the way, the number of charges has increased over the last year, the number of and splitting that by types of charges and splitting it by hubs and things like that. I think it's, you know, it's good that that's the way that that that's actually happening. So well done for that. Now, what was the question I was going to ask there. And that is, tell me something that an outsider wouldn't necessarily know about Zapmap and insights team that will make them go, oh, never knew that.

One of the things that would surprise people it's probably about Zapmap as a whole, not just about the insights team is and it's certainly something that surprises people, when I talk to EV drivers that know of Zapmap and then I tell them, I work for Zapmap. They go, Oh, my god, wow, would you work for Zapmap That's amazing. They don't realise quite how the size of the company that we are. So we're generally assumed to be a much, much bigger company than a local Bristol founded business. And that I think, really does surprise people because of the kind of punch that Zapmap packs with its app. And with all its accompanying services, we are actually quite a small team.

I think you're definitely - what's the phrase 'punching above your weight'? Yeah, you know, Sam app is one of the acknowledged leaders in the app space for electric vehicles. And I think people think of an app and they think, Well, you know, there's this huge, big, huge tech company behind it. And like you say, You're a relatively small company in Bristol. And then as you say, if you then start to add a lot of the extra things that we've talked about today, a lot of the data analysis and the the reporting and the statistics and things like that, you're getting a lot out of what is essentially not a particularly big team. So well done to you all for that.

We enjoy it, it definitely got a very might be a small team. But we're a very, very passionate team of people. That's for sure.

And it's amazing how far passion goes in a business like this, isn't it?

Yes, definitely.

You're in a specific situation. Now with with the insights data, you've got a lot of charger s out there, you've got a lot of data that you're capturing out there. You have a number of customers, both internal and external, who are making use of the data. Where are you going from here? What's what's the next step for the insights department at SAP?

Yes. So there's, there's quite a few things that we're working on at the moment. So new things coming up, we've got our latest survey is going to come out in the next few weeks. So that will be going to the EV drivers and getting the most up to date opinion on the public charging network. So we're really looking forward to getting that out into the field. And we're going to really look at that into the sort of the habits of those with on street parking versus those without on street parking, so that we can really understand what that's like at the moment. And obviously, as we start to see more EV Drivers without off street parking, we want to be help- making sure we're helping and putting out information that supports them. So that's going to be an interesting one. The other thing we've been working on with sort of across industry is that there - we'll be introducing new power rating bandings. So that's going to reflect the new public charge point regulations and the industry, the levels that were within there, they've kind of been set out. But they were industries trying to come together around some new terminology for those power rating bandings. Because we want to try and move it away from kind of any confusing language for new, new EV drivers coming into the space. So that's a big piece that's been going on for a while. And we're Yeah, working across industry to try and move that forwards. So the reporting, we do on the stats page, we've just put in a new graph, and just snuck it in down the bottom at the moment just to show what the numbers look like for those bandings. And then we'll be starting to transition to those. And that means we'll be able to start to transition as well. So some new graphs and charts on the stats pages. So keep an eye out for that. The other work we'll be doing is we're doing other kinds of partner partnerships to try and combine our dataset with other people's data as well. So the EVA England one was a good example trying to combine our data with their data with the geographic. We live in with people to combine those sets of information. So that's something we'll be doing more of, and then we'll be planning new products as we get more data through as the market develops. and trying to simplify the delivery of what we have to clients as well. So, you know, we're looking, particularly we look at the locations, the utilisation of charge points, and the pricing. So we'll be looking at what else we can do in those areas as well. And then the other thing, which is a little bit of a Zapmap thing, which is imminent, you will get the the heads up on this Gary is that, as you saw from the end of September figures, we were not quite at 50,000 devices. But we are now at 50,000 devices. And so we'll be putting out a bit of a splash on that in the coming days. So obviously, when this comes out, it will we will have done that piece, but you get to hear about it. Just before we get that out there in the market.

Yeah, I was disappointed when it was only 49,000 whatever 800 or whatever. It's so close. But I'm really glad that it's it's got over that figured out. Yeah. Is there a question You expected me to ask you that I didn't ask you?

I thought you probably asked us why. Why people came to Zapmap for data and insights, why people didn't just see it as it's an app for consumers. Yeah, so I thought you might ask me that question.

Well, in that case, tell me why people actually initially came to Zapmap for data rather than looking at it and said, Oh, well, it's just an app to I like to to identify locate chargers, what made them think there was all this data under there that you will be willing to provide?

So I think there's probably three reasons for that. I think one of them is the heritage that Zapmap's gott. So Mel and Ben, especially as the co founders of the business, they've been in the industry from the outset. So I think they saw that need that it wasn't, there wasn't just a need for mapping for EV drivers, and switching people to move to EV. But there was also a need to help support the wider industry. So they've been out there this whole time talking about the data that that what sits behind the app and making sure that they those insights were surfaced for the industry. So I think because they've been doing that, that heritage is kind of meant that people can see Zapmap as a thought leader in the space. And know that we will be putting information out there that they can use and rely on. Secondly it's probably the just the basic coverage that we've got people realise if they were going to ask if they wanted to know about ChargePoint numbers, if they came to us, they'd get the most complete picture of the charging landscape at any point in time. So I think that was driving people to come in and ask Zapmap proactively, can you share some more of your data with us. And then the third area, I think, is, is the overall kind of engagement. And it's kind of what I spoke about before that we're really passionate as a team, we always want to do more, we want to look at the data in new and interesting ways and drive more value from it. So that we can create that impact and and help drive that transition to sustainable transport and zero emission vehicles overall.

And if people and when I say people primarily mean in third party sort of business to business, but it could be, you know, people like myself, who are just interested if people want to get specific data from you, how do they do that? What's what's the process? Is this something that anybody can sort of talk to you and, and ask a question or what?

Yeah, certainly is. You can go on the website, you can see contact us details from looking at the stats pages, or the price index, there's more information you want to know that's not on the website, then send us an inquiry through there, or they can simply email insights at zap dash map.com.

And we will put that in the in the show notes. And what point if someone comes in and says, right, I need all this data, and I want it broken down in 25 different dimensions and duh duh duh duh , what point do you then look at that and go, right, that's something we can do but this is how much it's going to cost you, versus, 'Yeah. Okay, that's something that we already have and you can have that for free' is there who makes that decision? What's the rationale behind that?

That's just within the team, really. So we'll have have conversations with people that have sent in inquiries. And then we'll work out where that line sits on a particular inquiry. So yeah, there's lots and lots that we provide out for free, and we will continue doing so that's a really important part of our role. And then there are other areas where yes, we do have to charge for that. And so we'll then put a package together, but it's making sure that it really offers value to whoever's looking, looking for that data or that insight. And making sure you know, from our perspective, we want to be providing something that's helping them drive change and move things forwards. So if we don't think we can help we can support that then we'll be honest about that. And so that's not something that we're able to do at the moment. Or, actually, we think this information would really help you and will point them to wherever that information is. So whether that's through the Department for Transport and the information that's already out there, or through other partnerships we've done, we've did a bunch with Field Dynamics, for example and they have a fantastic interactive map on their website, which lets you see for different areas around the UK, the estimated kind of coverage of chargers, for those who don't have off street parking. So trying to understand actually what's within a five minute kind of walk of people's homes. So yeah, we've got loads of information out there as well. So there's lots and lots of things we can point people to and say, absolutely. Yeah, there's already a lot of information out there that you might not realise is out there.

Actually I was chatting with someone for Field Dynamics exactly about that last week. It's an interesting little concept that but it does bring up the next question, which is, has anybody actually asked you for anything and you've said, No, we don't actually have that, or we can't actually supply that. But that's actually a very, very good idea and we should start gathering that data.

We wouldn't be an insights team. If we weren't like, Oh, that's a good idea, that's interesting. I'd love to look at that data, or we'd love to do something with that. Yeah, the difficulty is not in what data is, is there and what could possibly be done with it The difficulty is just in the prioritising, what do we look at? What is going to add the most value to the industry overall. And generally, the way we look at that is try and think what matters most to EV drivers. And what matters most to them, is then likely to be what is most important to all the businesses within that industry, because they're all trying to cater to that need. So we just constantly have to try and take it back to that. But yeah, there's just so much there's so much opportunity within this whole industry. It's a really exciting place to be. And yeah, we're definitely not sure of, of ideas, from the look from the many, many partners that we work with clients and people were interested in the data and just interested in the sector overall.

Jade Edwards, thanks for your time.

So a couple of quick takeaways from that discussion. The insights team is a crucial piece of the bigger Zapmap picture, they've got access to a large amount of data coming from their app. This includes charger specific data location specific data, pricing, data usability data, and it can be packaged up in whichever way they want. And the whole area of data presentation is key. Listing pages and pages of spreadsheet data, something that's good for, you know, data geeks like me, but to really find the insights into it, the data has to be formatted and displayed in a way that allows the insight to appear natural. And that's why it's Zapmap we're looking at different ways to get this data out to people. One example was the recent post they produced graphing the current growth and projected growth of public charges in the UK. It showed that public charges was set to double in the next 20 months or so. Jade also mentioned the EVA England constituency map which is a really cool visualisation tool for seeing how many charges are in your specific area and how this number is changing over time. There's a link in the show notes for that. Many thanks to Jade for coming on and chatting with me.

Now it's time for a cool EV or renewable thing share with your listeners. To the naked eye the third T20 between England in New Zealand at Edgbaston this summer was just another afternoon of cricket, beer, 6's and the occasional chants from the famed Holly Stand. But for Edgebaston, this was a step into what they see as crickets future. Edgbaston has decided to go green, they've made sure that the 5000 seater stadium was running entirely off wind, hydro and solar power. The 'four' and 'six' cards that were waved in the crowd at cricket matches for two decades or more are now being produced with seed paper, which when planted at home will grow wildflowers. Lawn mowers and the roller used to prepare the playing surface were switched to electric alternatives. While red meat was banned from the hospitality menus. Climate change is one of cricket's uncomfortable truth. Reports into its impact on sport and said the cricket will be the hardest hit of all those that use a pitch or field. Around 40% of the cricket grounds in England and Wales - 1000s in the recreational game - are at the risk of the impacts of a changing climate, whether through drought or flooding. And Edgbaston is one of several grounds that are making sustainability moves and has something that we all like to see. Right.

And that's the show for today. Hope you enjoy You're listening to it. If you want to contact me, I can be emailed at EV musings@gmail.com I'm also on Twitter at MusingsEV. If you want to support the podcast and newsletter, please consider contributing to becoming an EV Musings patron. The link is in the show notes. Don't want to sign up for something on a monthly basis. If you enjoyed this episode, why not buy me a coffee, go to coffee.com/EVmusings and you could do just that K O dash F I .com/EVMusings. I have a couple of ebooks out there if you want something to read on your Kindle. 'So, you've gone electric?' is available on Amazon worldwide for the measly sum of 99p or equivalent and it's a great little introduction to living with an electric car. ‘So you’ve gone renewable’ is also available on Amazon for the same 99p and it covers installing Solar Panels, a storage battery and a heat pump Why not check them both out? Links for everything we've talked about in the podcast today are in the description. If you enjoyed this podcast please subscribe it's available on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Please leave a review, as it helps raise visibility and extend our reach in search engines. If you've reached this part of the podcast and are still listening thank you. Why not? Let me know you've gotten to this part by tweeting me EV Musings EV with the words or an insight hashtag if you know you know nothing else. Thanks as always so much for me, Simon. Yeah, he's kicking out lots of unicycle content on his YouTube channel nowadays, but he's always complaining that he'd like to send out more, as most of his videos require him to actually get out, do a trip and record it. The critical thing is finding some time in his busy schedule to actually do the rides. I asked him if he had his own way how long you'd like to spend out riding and recording videos. He told me

all the time.

Thanks for listening. Bye