| News | Pressrelease

Mer to accelerate the transition to emission-free driving in the UK

Mer UK - owned by the Norwegian energy giant Statkraft, Europe’s largest renewable energy producer has set its sights on the UK’s EV charging market to accelerate much-needed infrastructure deployment in strategic places where people need EV charging in their everyday life, like residential streets, key retail locations and at work.

Mer to accelerate the transition to emission-free driving in the UK

From Gronn Kontakt UK to Mer UK

The company launching as Mer today, is formerly known as Gronn Kontakt and has operated in UK since March 2020. Mer UK has already installed more than 100 chargers into businesses, organisations, key retail locations and into areas managed by local authorities and brings with it the experience of running similar programmes in Norway – Europe’s market leader for EV ownership where last year more than half of new car sales (54%) were electric – a global first.

– The lessons we have learned from Norway – where the majority of new car sales are now electric – is that installing EV chargers into workplaces and more broadly into community locations, and switching fleet vehicles to electric, will be a critical element to the success of the green-vehicle transition, says Anthony Hinde, Managing Director at Mer UK.

Mer to help UK reach ambitious EV targets

– The UK Government has set ambitious targets for the switch to zero-emission vehicles, especially with the announcement of the 2030 ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars. This target is absolutely achievable, but it will require a fundamental shift in how the UK’s EV charging infrastructure is developed. And that is what Mer can and will help with, says Hinde.

Mer is focused on getting charging stations into businesses, organisations, key retail locations and into areas managed by local authorities where there will be high usage – like residential streets where people don’t have driveways or garages – up and down the UK.

– For businesses, switching from diesel to EVs should be an easy choice – they are not just cheaper to run in terms of total cost of ownership, but they make such a positive impact on the environment which is rapidly becoming a key differentiator when it comes to doing business, Hinde adds.

Read complete pressrelease here

Mer is well positioned to scale up efforts in UK

– We believe what took 10 years in Norway to establish, will take less time in larger economies, such as in the UK. That’s why we are positioned here to take part in the growth and development, says Kristoffer Thoner, CEO at Mer.

– The EV market in UK is still in development but expanding rapidly. We will now leverage our efforts going forward with the foundation of knowledge and experience from Norway paired with local expertise in Mer UK, Thoner says.

Our ambitions is to become the best and most customer-oriented EV Charging company in Europe – powered by pure energy from Statkraft. We truly believe this is a strong mix for future success and we need to get going now!

Kristoffer Thoner - CEO of Mer Group

About the companies

Mer UK

Mer is a European EV charging company owned by Statkraft, Europe’s largest renewable energy generator. Through our extensive experience within renewable energy and electric mobility, we are combining the best of both worlds to power the European shift towards a purer way of transportation. In the UK, we offer electric vehicle charging for businesses and local authorities. Our mission is to make sustainable electric mobility easy and accessible to everyone.

Learn more about Mer UK

Statkraft

Mer Group is fully owned by Statkraft, a company with over 125 years of experience within renewable energy production, and with over 4500 employees in 17 countries. Today, Statkraft supplies Mer charging stations with renewable energy to reduce the CO2-emissions and accelerate the transition to electric mobility for a sustainable future

Learn more about Statkraft