RAW Charging in the U.K. will provide free charging for electric vehicle (EV) drivers at selected locations on the fifth annual World EV Day, Monday, September 9, while BP Pulse will offer discounted rates throughout its U.K. charging station network. Similar promotions are also being held in other countries, and in previous years, governments have used World EV Day to announce new EV charging infrastructure initiatives.
However, despite significant efforts, Green.TV, the British media and marketing agency that founded World EV Day during the pandemic five years ago, has not received much financial support from the companies that benefit from the event.
According to Ade Thomas, CEO of Green.TV, “it’s really difficult to monetize World EV Day.” 2020 saw the creation of the promotional day by his tiny, environmentally conscious agency.
“The day has a massive impact—companies take it and make it their own—but while our goal is to build a global movement for change, only a few organizations provide financial backing for the campaign,” he said from his office in Oxford, England.
This year’s main sponsor of the promotional day is Auto Trader UK; without them, “we’d be on a sticky wicket,” as Thomas put it, using a cricket word for an awkward situation.
This year’s other sponsors include Octopus Electroverse, which has 850,000 charging stations spread over 40 countries, and Waze, an international navigation tool. Illinois, which has drawn EV players like Rivian, Lion Electric, and Gotion to manufacture in the state through its Drive Electric initiative, is another partner along with NYPA, the power authority of New York State.
Green.TV may be a small company, but the impact of World EV Day has been significant. Last year, the event garnered over 200 million impressions on Twitter/X across 119 countries, with support from major brands like Ford, Nissan, Tata, Volvo Trucks, ABB, FedEx, and many others.
“We’ve successfully attracted the attention of the global EV community,” said Thomas. He added, “It’s not just about PR—there are tangible real-world activations, including company meetups and similar events. World EV Day is an opportunity to inspire, drive engagement, and accelerate the transition to electric vehicles.
According to Green, a former commissioning editor at the BBC, World EV Day serves as a useful hook for the media, which is still prejudiced against EVs in some areas.
“There has been a lot of fear, uncertainty, and doubt circulating in the media,” he mentioned during a podcast earlier this month.
There will always be some conflict, in my opinion, if we take a broad view of any significant strategic change in the way we live. World EV Day is crucial in addressing this issue, which we must do.
For Thomas, electric vehicles represent a “transportation solution” in a world where climate change needs to be addressed.
“Everything we do in the EV space is fundamentally based on the science of climate change,” he declared. “Hopefully, the policies pertaining to the hard science of climate change will stay in place, but in order to get net zero, we still need to satisfy extremely rigorous goals. If not, we have a severe problem.”