Ikea family pours £177m into electric car charging sites

‘We remain committed to our strategy to separately list our e-mobility business’

THE family behind Ikea is pumping millions of pounds into rolling out more charging points to address “range fear” among drivers of electric vehicles.

Interogo Holding, a Swiss-based foundation that manages the legacy of Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad, has invested 200m Swiss francs (£177m) into an electric vehicle (EV) spin-off by engineering giant ABB, alongside Swiss asset management Helvetic Trust.

It follows ABB E-mobility’s failed stock market float earlier this year.

ABB runs some of the Britain’s biggest EV charging partnerships.

It is working with Shell, Gridserve, BMW and Birmingham airport as Britain prepares for a ban on the sale of new petrol cars by 2030.

ABB, whose parent company helps power the London Underground, is not the first infrastructure company important to Britain that has gained Interogo’s backing.

Last year it invested £825m alongside Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund in Cityfibre, which is aiming to build a telecoms network that will enable 8m British homes to benefit from fibre-to-the-premises connectivity.

Scepticism remains about the feasibility of Boris Johnson’s ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars.

Critics argue that Britain has been slow to set out a plan on the building of EV charging, leading to concerns that “range fear” – where drivers are concerned that their vehicles will run out of power – will be rife.

Meanwhile, there are further concerns that charging points will be concentrated in London. Figures released by the Department for Transport last month revealed that there are more points in the borough of Westminster than Birmingham, Liverpool and Greater Manchester combined.

Britain has 34,000 public chargers. On average 785 are being built each month. Ministers have pledged to have 300,000 public EV charging points in place and usable by 2030.

Richard Silén, from the investment management arm of Interogo, said: “We are impressed by what the ABB e-mobility team has achieved. It is well-positioned to support the transformation towards a more sustainable future.”

Björn Rosengren, ABB’S chief executive, said: “We remain committed to our strategy to separately list our e-mobility business subject to constructive market conditions.”

Meanwhile, Pod Point, an electric car charging point group, issued a profits warning, blaming delays to deliveries of plug-in vehicles for the lack of home chargers being installed.

Pod Point, backed by France’s EDF, said sales growth of EVS and hybrids had “slowed markedly” over the past 18 months.