Electric vehicle charging platform Monta has hired Ricky Hill as country manager for Ireland to lead the company’s expansion plans here.

Hill, whose background is in M&A and technology, will oversee the company’s regional growth and the creation of partnerships with local chargepoint manufacturers, wholesalers, operators, installers, and businesses.

Monta provides an EV app which works both for vehicle owners, as a charging app, and for charge-point operators as a management system. The company says that it “allows any company, organisation, and public entity with available sites and space, to view, manage and set up charge points for employees, guests, and public EV drivers. Charge point owners can then manage users, power usage, pricing, access and transactions through the Monta app.”

Hill said that Ireland is a key growth market for the company despite the country’s EV charging infrastructure growth lagging behind EV sales, and that improving the EV driver’s charging experience will be a key feature of the industry over the coming years.

Said Hill: “The EV industry in Ireland is at a critical point as sales skyrocket, yet the charging infrastructure is significantly behind where it needs to be.

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“We’re here to help change that by facilitating charging infrastructure expansion, providing seamless chargepoint management for installers and operators, and, most importantly, providing an effortless charging experience for EV drivers through our user-centric app.

“I’m joining at an exceptionally exciting time for the company. Monta has had a lot of success in a very short space of time, and I’m looking forward to working with the global team to support EV infrastructure in Ireland and across the globe.”

The effortlessness will come from the Monta app’s universality, as Hill pointed out that “private manufacturers and operators often ring fence their customers into a network, which has led drivers needing a plethora of different apps, RFID cards and payment systems to find, charge and pay.

“This is unnecessary and can drive a poor charging experience. Monta seeks to remove this hassle so the charging experience is seamless.”

Monta’s ambition, he said, is to create an open, accessible network of charge point infrastructure.

He added that changes to the SEAI’s home charger grant will “be a game changer”, as it allows any homeowner to avail of the grant to install a charger, regardless of whether they have an EV or not. This will enable homeowners to install a charger before purchasing an electric vehicle, for visitor use, or at rented accommodation. 

“Monta’s app offers an Airbnb-like service that enables private chargers to be made available for public use,” commented Hill, “which can be found by anyone using the app. We can see a number of businesses like B&Bs, hotels, restaurants and entrepreneurial people who have a public parking space using this to generate another income.”

According to Monta, enabling this peer-to-peer charging by sharing home chargers will allow private charger owners earn an extra income: by connecting personal EV chargers to the Monta app, private chargepoint owners can view their charging history, manage access to the charge point, and set their own pricing and usage.

Monta has already partnered with Irish electrical infrastructure company Core Solutions to establish 50 new electric car charging points in Ireland.