The French state-backed energy giant EDF is in talks to acquire a British vehicle-charging start-up, making it the latest utility to tap into a fast-growing area of the global automotive sector.

Sky News has learnt that EDF, which is one of the UK's biggest retail energy suppliers, is holding detailed discussions about a takeover of Pod Point, which was founded in 2009.

Talks about a deal are understood to have been taking place for some time.

If successfully completed, the purchase of Pod Point would give EDF Energy a foothold in an area of the energy infrastructure market that is expected to see an explosion in demand over the coming decades.

Fewer than 1% of the UK's 32 million vehicles are plug-in, but that proportion is likely to soar over the next decade amid an expansion of the required infrastructure and regulatory obstacles to polluting cars.


Set up by Erik Fairbairn, the company now has about 1,700 public charging points and has struck partnerships with car manufacturers including the Peugeot-owner PSA Group, which on Thursday confirmed plans for a €45bn merger with Fiat Chrysler.

The accelerating shift away from diesel cars to electric vehicles is forcing a radical shake-up of the automotive industry landscape as big manufacturers seek to forge new alliances based on the development of self-driving and low-polluting technology.

In the UK, the government has set a target through its Road to Zero strategy of making 70% of new car sales in the ultra-low emissions category by 2030.

A recent report by Capital Economics, a consultancy, said the UK would have to spend £240bn on the provision of thousands of new vehicle-charging points every day if it is to meet the government's net zero carbon emissions objective by 2050.

Pod Point does not provide specific data relating to its growth rate, but said in its most recent annual update that it had been responsible for 28% of charging installations at homes in the UK in the year to 30 June.

The company said this month that a partnership with Lidl, the discount grocer, would see 300 of its charging points installed at its stores by 2022.

Pod Point's products charge electric vehicles from zero to 80% in about 50 minutes.

It has struck partnerships with property-owners such as Hammerson, the shopping centre landlord, in an effort to accelerate the rollout of the infrastructure.

Further details of the talks between EDF and Pod Point, including the value of the prospective deal, were unclear on Thursday.

However, one insider said that EDF was likely to acquire a controlling stake in the company, and that that would involve buying out minority investors including Draper Esprit, a Barclays-owned fund and QVentures.

Legal & General Ventures, which is part of the FTSE-100 financial services group, is expected to retain its Pod Point stake if a transaction is concluded.

L&G has only been a shareholder in the company since March this year.

EDF declined to comment on the talks.

In a statement, Mr Fairbairn said that Pod Point did not comment on "specific rumours" but added: "Pod Point regularly explores different ways to finance its expansion and fund its national network of charging points.

"Examples of this include our current national rollout of charging points across Tesco stores and our recent fundraising with Legal and General which we completed in March of this year.

"We're obviously very excited about the accelerating adoption of electric vehicles in the UK and committed to our vision that travel doesn't damage the Earth."

Last year, BP bought the rival charging point network Chargemaster in a deal said to have been valued at £130m.