AA Garage Guide launches Chargemaster partnership

AA Garage Guide has announced a partnership with electric vehicle charging provider, Chargemaster. The provider of online bookings, patrol referrals and the ‘Certified Garage Programme’ said the move is in response to positive feedback from both the garages in its network and those surveyed on Garage Wire.

With 52 per cent of responses to Garage Wire’s online survey and just under 50 per cent of those surveyed within the Garage Guide network answering that they would be interested in hosting a public electric vehicle charging station on site, the implementation of this unique partnership will roll out in the coming months. Installation of all Chargemaster public charging points on the POLAR network will be completely free to Certified garages, AA Garage Guide adds.

Chargemaster is the official UK charging partner for most electric vehicle manufacturers, and it has installed over 40,000 Homecharge units to date, with all products designed and manufactured in the UK.

To support the scheme, AA Garage Guide is in the process of arranging EV training for all interested parties, although, reassuringly, nearly 58 per cent of all member garages that participated in the survey had at least one member of staff already trained on hybrid and electric vehicles, with 45 per cent of Garage Wire readers confirming that they too can accommodate EV repairs.

“The feedback we received both from our garage network  and the Garage Wire readership shows the enthusiasm that’s out there for making sure that garages can cater to all of their customers’ needs,” said Olli Astley, managing director of garage services at The AA.

“55 per cent of our garages are keen to offer electric car charging as an added service, and just over 58 per cent expressed interest in hearing more about the EV / Hybrid vehicle training that we are arranging on their behalf.

“And as this opportunity is free to all Certified garages, being proactive and customer-focussed is now even more rewarding with AA Garage Guide.”

David Martell, chief executive of Chargemaster said: “We are excited about extending our partnership with the AA to include the provision of charging points for AA Certified garages.

“As well as helping to support servicing of electric cars at the garages, having public charging points will attract other EV drivers to these locations, who could become future customers.”