Allstar hits charge point milestone and announces rebrand

Allstar has surpassed its target of having 10,000 charge points available on its network by the end of year.

The fuel, electric vehicle (EV) charging, and business expense payment provider has signed a series of deals with charge point operators (CPOs) to boost the number of devices available to its customers to more than 10,200.

More than one-third of the network is made up of ultra-rapid chargers (3,600-plus), with the majority (6,200-plus) fast chargers and the remaining 338 classed as slow.

Motor Fuel Group’s (MFG) ultra-rapid charging network MGF EV Power was the latest addition, helping to boost numbers on the Allstar Business Solutions Zap-Map network.

The deal meant business drivers could use their Allstar One Electric card lodged digitally within the Zap-Map app at an additional 230-plus chargers, with MGF aiming to install around 3,000 by 2031.

Tom Rowlands, managing director (MD) of global electric vehicle (EV) solutions at Fleetcor, Allstar Business Solutions' parent company, told Fleet News: “All of our key targets are coming on board either Q4 this year or early next year.”

A big area of focus for Fleetcor in terms of growing the Allstar network further is Scotland. The company has been in discussions with ChargePlace Scotland with an announcement possible in the new year.

"We're in pretty good shape from an England perspective,” continued Rowlands. “Scotland is clearly its own ecosystem with ChargePlace Scotland.”

EV charge points on the ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) network were made free for users following Scottish Government grants made to local authorities and public bodies in the early 2010s.

Since then, Scotland’s overall public charge point network has grown to more than 3,000, with in excess of 2,400 of these now on the CPS network.

However, to ensure the long-term growth, sustainability and reliability of the public EV charge point network in Scotland, a recent report from the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT)  suggested that crucial private sector investment is needed to grow it at scale and pace.

Rowlands says that Fleetcor has been talking to ChargePlace Scotland about the challenges the charge point provider faces and how it can help commercialise the network and make it viable in the long term.

“They're evolving their thinking around how they work with people like us to also encourage further investment into their network that's not necessarily driven all by ChargePlace Scotland,” he added.

Allstar rebrand ‘reflects its evolution’

Allstar, has announced a rebrand along with a new website to reflect how its product offering for fleets has evolved in recent years.

It says that in a rapidly changing world, businesses are redefining their needs, blurring the lines of payments for refuelling, recharging and wider business expenses.

Paul Holland, managing director, UK Fleet at Allstar, said: “While Allstar maintains its industry leading fuel network, our focus is ultimately on what UK businesses need to make payments easier.

“Over the years that’s meant our product offering has evolved to enable customers to pay for other essentials they need when on the road – whether it’s a toll fee or a hotel for the night. And with the move to electric vehicles intensifying in recent years, bolstered by the Government’s ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2030 – we’ve amplified our offering to support these needs too.”

He added: “Not only do we look at what our customers can pay for but how, and the impact it will have on their business decisions.

“While we have updated our branding, our mission is as clear as ever – to remove the burden, complexities and challenges in payments that make it easy for companies to focus on managing and growing their business.”

Allstar has more than 1.2 million cards in circulation across 50,000 businesses.