Kempower demonstrates its first lease-funded UK EV charging install

There are now eight new ultra-rapid charging outlets at Astwick Service Station on the A1 northbound near Hitchin – and Highway Stops Retail Limited (HSRL), the company that operates the service station, didn’t need to find the cash upfront to install them. That’s because they used a model that could prove to be popular in the coming years as sites scramble to have EV charging installed but want to avoid high upfront costs. 

Kempower, a Finnish-based manufacturer of EV charging infrastructure, partnered with DLL back in November 2024 to offer finance for charging equipment in the UK and several other European markets. While that financing has been available for some time, Astwick is said to be the partnership’s first completed project and its first leasing-enabled installation in the UK. 

The site uses four Kempower Double Satellites, giving eight CCS2 outlets, connected to two Power Units. Kempower’s distributed architecture allocates power dynamically between charging outlets, with an individual Satellite capable of supplying up to 400 kW where the vehicle and available system capacity allow. 

It’s not just about the physical hardware, however. Kempower also says regular maintenance is included within the financed offer, with Yunex Traffic named as the long-term servicing partner. That gives HSRL the confidence that its chargers will continue working long into the future – an important factor given the UK Government’s eagerness to improve EV charging reliability.

While Astwick’s new chargers will be welcome for those who will use it, the financing model is the real star of the show. It comes at an important time for the UK’s EV charging market, with the rollout having slowed in recent months. That was blamed on mixed signals from the UK Government regarding the EV mandate.

Those investment jitters could mean companies are less willing to fund the large upfront capex of installing EV chargers. With a leasing option, however, companies can spread the cost and get maintenance included – which could prove attractive. That was something that was highlighted by Shilan Raja, Director at HSRL, on this project. Raja noted that financing the project through Kempower with DLL was a ‘huge enabler’. 

Rolle Nieminen, Kempower’s Head of Sales for the UK & Ireland, added, “This flexible funding model opens the door for customers like HSRL who are in the early stages of expanding their EV charging services. The agreement we have with DLL helps remove the financial risk for operators, making the decision to commit to EV charging easier than ever. I’m excited to see more small and independent forecourt operators participating in the EV charging rollout through this new strategy.” 

Mark McLoughlin, Energy Transition Country Commercial Manager for UK & Ireland at DLL, concluded, “We partnered with Kempower because we wanted to enable its customers to be successful without the significant initial capex. In today’s world, where the initial cost of hardware is high, our financing solutions can make the deployment of EV chargers easier and more affordable.”