Full Fibre ISP Fibrus Makes Progress on Transition to EV Fleet

Broadband ISP Fibrus, which is busy rolling out their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) networks across parts of both Northern Ireland and the North of England, has revealed that 14 of their vehicles are now electric (EV) and they’ve deployed five rapid chargers at their Dargan site to support that.

At present, Fibrus has already deployed their full fibre network – using a mix of commercial build and public investment – to 190,000 premises. After that, the operator has a target of raising this to 500,000 premises by March 2024 (around 350,000 of which will be in Northern Ireland).

However, much like other providers, they’re also gradually moving to adopt EVs for both engineering and general work. At present, 14 of the Northern Ireland-based provider’s 100-strong fleet are already powered by electricity, with the number set to rise dramatically in 2023.

All Fibrus EV drivers already have home charging facilities, but the new Dargan based EV chargers are much quicker following the addition of a rapid 50KW charging unit alongside other charge points. The new points were designed, connected and installed by EV charging point operator Weev.

Sharon McGregor, Fleet, Facilities and Office Manager at Fibrus, said:

The major benefit of having them is how fast they are. Fibrus installs a charging point at the homes of team members who have electric vehicles. That could take roughly eight hours to charge, so they would normally leave their EV charging overnight.

The charging points at Dargan are much quicker. For example, with the raid charging unit you get 200 miles of range in just one hour, and you should be able to charge a full battery in 90 minutes. There are five designated parking bays with charging points and all of them are available for Fibrus-branded electric vehicles or personal EVs free of charge.”

The aim is to have a fully electric fleet by 2025 and they’re currently at 14%, although that’s ahead of their original target for 10% of their fleet to have been converted by the end of 2022. “By the end of 2023 we’re hoping to have at least 30% of our fleet fully electric and the aim by the end of 2024 is to have it 60% fully electric,” added Sharon.

One of the reasons that prompted Fibrus to install its own electric vehicle charging points in September, was the paucity of charging infrastructure in Northern Ireland. But Fibrus are by no means alone in adopting EVs, with Cityfibre, Virgin Media (VMO2) and Openreach – among many others – also going down the same path.