Neill Emmett is the Director for Brand and Marketing – emobility at Konect, the EV charging ecosystem branch of Gilbarco Veeder-Root, and joined the firm back in 2024. In his previous position, Neill held the role of Head of UK Marketing at LeasePlan.
We spoke to Neill to find out more about his career in the emobility industry, and to learn more about Konect.
How did your career path lead to you landing in the emobility sector?
I’ve always been passionate about cars and sustainability. Having grown up on a farm, I understand the importance of good nutrition and living in a healthy environment. I want my kids to grow up safe in the knowledge that the air we breathe is clean, and that the food we eat is wholesome.
I moved into mobility when my first son was born, and that really motivated me to make a difference. Now, ten years on, I’ve been able
to make a positive impact in an area that I’m passionate about. It’s a love affair for me; marketing, education, sustainability – they all blend so well for me, and I love it.
Do you currently drive an EV? If so, what model is it, and what do you love most about it?
Yes, I do. We have two cars in the household: I purchased a Porsche Taycan last year, and my wife has a Volkswagen Multivan eHybrid. The Porsche is awesome, and it has a special place in my heart. However, truth be told, the Multivan is the best vehicle that we’ve owned as a family. It’s big enough to get everything we need in, and we can drive the kids to school and back on battery power. But, when we travel to France, we also have the flexibility of an efficient petrol engine.
As a family, we rarely fly; we prefer to tow our Opus trailer tent and go camping. My wife and kids love it so much, there’s no reason to change. We charge our vehicles at home, where we also have an air-source heat pump and underfloor heating all powered by Octopus Energy – so we’re confident that we can keep our CO2 footprint low. It’s a win-win-win: driving great EVs, reducing our CO2 footprint, and having lots of fun in the process.
The UK’s 2024 autumn budget outlined several points related to EVs and EV charging. Do you think these measures go far enough for driving EV adoption ahead of 2030?
I think the government needs to do more and press ahead with the pledges that have been made, such as rolling out 300,000 public chargers by 2030. Significant investment has been committed to supporting EV charging and delivering the infrastructure that’s needed to help expand the network.
Rowing back on that commitment will send a negative signal to the market that will take years to recover from. As the industry looks to
boost EV uptake further, certainty is needed now more than ever – and doubling down on delivering promised measures will provide the reassurance required to make that happen.
Konect was only launched earlier this year. How do you see the business growing globally over the next five years?
We see lots of opportunities for our seamless end-to-end EV charging ecosystem, and we have big plans to expand the business over the coming years.
What’s most exciting is the growth that we’re seeing in the market. Fuel retailers are under pressure to make strategic changes, and they
are turning to organisations like Konect to help them navigate that process, delivering a great customer experience while adding a profitable new revenue stream to their business.
We’re also about to launch our solution for grid-buffered EV charging – one of the most compelling areas in which to improve the effectiveness of EV charging infrastructure. It utilises battery storage to enable sophisticated energy management on sites, and is particularly useful in markets where there’s a high differential between peak and off-peak energy prices, or where securing a grid upgrade can be time-consuming.
As of the end of November 2024, most aspects of the UK Public Charge Point Regulations 2023 became enforced. What challenges or opportunities do you see in Konect’s UK operations as a result of these changes?
The UK Public Charge Point Regulations 2023 are an important step towards giving EV drivers a better experience, and they present both challenges and opportunities for Konect.
Ensuring compliance, such as delivering 99% uptime and seamless contactless payments, demands robust systems and collaboration across diverse stakeholders. Konect’s turnkey ecosystem excels in this space, enabling 80% of faults to be resolved remotely and dispatching engineers with precision to minimise downtime.
These regulations also open opportunities to build trust through transparency and reliability. By leveraging advanced monitoring, data sharing, and our expertise in fleet and fuel retail solutions, Konect is well-positioned to lead in delivering a seamless and dependable charging experience for EV drivers.
Konect’s parent company, Gilbarco Veeder- Root, already holds significant expertise in fuel dispensing. How is Konect converting these skills to apply to EV charging solutions?
Bringing that wealth of knowledge and expertise in the forecourt space is a huge strength of ours.
Our team of expert field service engineers are ideally placed for us to cross-train them, extending the service levels our fuel retail customers already rely on to the EV charging space.
It’s a rare skillset that brings safety to the forefront of all our work; we’re dealing with a dangerous substance delivered via sophisticated technology, which the general public interacts with.
We are uniquely placed to support this market – which is why we can proudly say we have a number of major charge-point operators as strategic clients.
We thank Neill for taking part in our EV Leaders series. You can find out more about the work Konect do, here.
