The Hidden Cost of EV Deployment Delays with Trevor Palmer

Trevor Palmer, founder of EVBlocks, joins Field Frequency to discuss how smarter foundation design is helping accelerate EV charger deployments, simplify future upgrades, and improve long-term infrastructure planning. From lessons learned in the UK to scaling across the U.S., Trevor shares practical insights on building charging networks that are faster to deploy and built for what's next.

Show Notes:

• Trevor Palmer's journey from electrician to founder of EVBlocks
• How EVBlocks was created to eliminate deployment delays
• Saving up to a week on charger installations
• Why foundations should be designed for future charger upgrades
• Lessons from EV deployment across the UK and Europe
• Scaling EV infrastructure in the U.S.
• Grid capacity challenges and planning for expansion
• The hidden costs of poor construction practices
• Building charging sites for long-term flexibility
• Creating a seamless charging experience for EV drivers

Trevor Palmer Bio 

Trevor Palmer is the founder and CEO of EV Blocks, a company transforming EV charger installations with modular, precast concrete foundations designed to simplify deployment and future-proof charging infrastructure. A qualified electrician with more than 20 years of experience in electrical contracting and construction, Palmer developed the EV Blocks system after seeing firsthand how traditional poured concrete foundations delayed projects and complicated future maintenance.

His patented foundation system features a universal adapter plate that enables faster installations, easier charger replacements, and up to a 35% reduction in carbon emissions compared to conventional on-site concrete pours. Under his leadership, the Peterborough, UK-based company has expanded into North America, Canada, Australia, France, and Ireland, supported by an international manufacturing and distribution network.

Named Global Entrepreneur of the Year 2025 at the Allica Bank Great British Entrepreneur Awards, Palmer is a recognized voice in EV infrastructure, advocating for scalable deployment strategies, future-ready site design, and a better charging experience for drivers. On this episode of Field Frequency, he shares lessons from deploying charging infrastructure across Europe and North America, offering practical insights into accelerating installations, overcoming grid constraints, and building EV charging networks designed for long-term success.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Charger hardware and supporting infrastructure is typically the focal point in deployment discussions, but the layer underneath the chargers are rarely discussed. And if that layer is slow, poorly designed, difficult to scale, or impossible to upgrade later, the entire deployment model starts breaking down. In today's episode of Field Frequency, I'm joined by Trevor Palmer, founder of EV Blocks, to talk about what Europe figured out earlier than the U.S. We talk about why deployment bottlenecks are stalling projects and how infrastructure decisions made during construction can create years of downstream operational pain. The conversation gets into site design, future proofing, deployment speed, and the hidden realities underneath EV charging infrastructure. Let's get into it. Today I'm happy to have Trevor Palmer, founder of EV Blocks, with us today. Trevor's joining us from the UK. So afternoon there and morning time here in Texas. Glad we were able to align our schedules to get you on field frequency. Trevor, how are you doing this afternoon? Yeah, we're doing good. Thank you. Yeah. Well, let's go ahead and get started. Uh, would like to kick off the conversation, uh, you know, give us your origin story, walk us through your background, the path that led you into EV infrastructure, and then what the inflection points that pushed you from your electrical and construction background into you know founding EV blocks. And then uh after that, if you could, you know, give us an overview of EV blocks, what what what what you're doing in the space.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Sure. So um I'm an electrician by trade, so that's where it all kind of started. Um I built up a electrical contracting business over a number of years. During that period, we were asked to start undertaking the installations, and we were just started off with the electrical part, and then we started moving into full turnkey, doing all the civil engineering works, tarmac reinstatement works, the line marking and the installation of the actual or the electrical installation of the actual EV chargers as well. Um, one thing we were finding, we were doing this for car dealerships such as Audi and Volkswagen, those kind of showrooms. And when the projects came along, they wanted them delivered in a really fast timescale. Um so in the in the beginning we were doing poured concrete pads for the electric vehicle pedestals, and that was causing like a bit of a lag in terms of being able to get each project over the line, waiting for concrete to dry. So we came up with a couple of precast solutions, and then um we wanted to make it so that it was universal and we had a bit more space to work inside of the foundation. So um I designed the the ignitional EV blocks concept and then we started to install those uh foundations and we and we you know subsequently launched an entire EV blocks brand off the back of it as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Yeah, and so this uh this this prefab design is essentially the the is streamlining the streamlining the deployment to your point of the waiting for concrete to cure that whole process. Uh EV Blocks product is really about bypassing some of the delays and really escalating the installation or reducing the the time des deployment. Is that fair enough?

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Yeah, that's right. We uh we saved about a week per project by sort of streamlining this. And we were also able to kind of divorce the electrical contractors and uh the civils guys. Electricians knew every time they went to site they were going to get an EV block to mount their EV charge to. Only that, if it's raining outside, they could take that adapter plate off, take it in the workshop and all the pedestals, walk back out straight on, and then they've just got the wiring stage to do. So they could do all the mechanical works in the dry, and then the last little bit, you know, connecting up the last the cables and glending off in the field. So hopefully by then it stopped raining.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Yeah. So obviously, different different designs of footprint for for different chargers. There's you know, different sizes, sizes of of chargers, both in terms of output, which are determining the you know, the substructure of the unit. How how I'm assuming you're designing, you've got a platform for various different brands of hardware to yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

So our product is kind of it's the same product every time, so it gives that consistent look um across like an estate. And then we've got like a a working range of pedestals that will fit onto uh the EV blocks products. So the majority of type two or level two chargers, as they're more well known in in the US, will fit on our standard EV block product.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Okay. And and what about DC fast charging products? Is is EV Blocks got a solution for DC fast chargers?

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Yeah, so in the UK we launched what we call the B800, which is a 800 millimeter by 800 millimeter cube that has a single entry point, and then the cables can come through the center, and we have like a match plate between the foundation and the DC charger. Um, and then we've just released a kind of sister product to that in the US, which is going to be the DC Foundation, and that is available now in the US.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Nice. You you know, you you made uh a distinction there when you referred to you know AC power charging level two is how you know kind of we referred to it in the US. You referred to it as type two. So uh, you know, obviously I mentioned at the beginning of the call, you're you're you're you're based in the UK the UK and uh working in the US market though. And so I have I have a question regarding the distinctions between the European market and and maybe deployments in the US being based in a in a part of the global market where EV infrastructure deployment is is uh more mature than maybe here in the US? When you started spending time in the American market, when you started you know bringing EV blocks to the US, what stood out to you as as maybe something inefficient or slow or what what stood out to you from a deployment standpoint versus what you know what you saw um where you're from?

SPEAKER_00 6:14

I think uh I was uh very surprised by the kind of the adoption of pre-cast in America. It's it's really heavy precast in the States compared to the UK, I feel. And um kind of opens the doors then to scalability because you know, EV blocks, we've got these held in inventory in the US, ready to load onto the back of the truck and go to a site. So that kind of the American way of of scalability really kind of opened my eyes a bit in terms of this is if we want to operate in the US then we need to make this really scale well. And we've achieved that with you know probably about 20 production locations across America. So there's local distribution of a heavy product. Um and then in terms of adoption, like Europe, I think there's a push here in Europe because fuel costs are so high compared with the US. Um still it's a tough sell in the US to go electric with the price of gas.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Yeah, yeah. Fuel uh fuel is is is is creeping up there and it's um uh you know been fully EV for some time now, so I haven't paid uh close too much close attention uh to fuel cost of fuel uh traveling this past weekend, of course, in a rental gas-powered vehicle, getting ready to return the vehicle to the airport. Wow, 100 bucks for filling up a little small uh you know, 16 gallon tank, something like that, uh a hundred bucks for that. So yeah, the the the pain points around pricing you you would think would be uh escalating that shift, or at least maybe considerations or escalating the the considerations around EV. So, you know, kind of looking at deployment bottlenecks, because you you made mention of the scalability here in the US and deployments around that. Focus always seems to be on charger brands and software, you know, output levels of the charger. Not always is there focus around the granularity of deployment and and maybe that layer underneath of the chargers, that layer underneath. And um what what do you think that the industry underestimated in the US when it came to that that lower layer of deployment?

SPEAKER_00 8:21

I think people like Tesla have done well to put that supercharging network in place and it's kind of proved that it can be done. And then you've got other players like ChargePoint kind of following in their footsteps, Rivian trying to build their own adventure network as well. It'll be interesting to see how that that pans out. I think there's there's more thoughts going into future proofing sites now than when there was in the first deployments and how these sites are going to mature. Um whereas I think early on it was just get pins in the ground so that people can charge on the on their journey. And now these sites might be constrained by the actual land parcel that they've been built on. So I think the the bigger CPOs are looking at larger sites and with capacity, so they might put 20 chargers in and then have capacity for 20 more when they see utilization from opposite. There's definitely um there's more scope around what's this going to look like in future.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Mm-hmm. Only uh, you know, you you call it a good point, con constraints around you know the green space, the the ability to, you know, have more spacing, more parking, etc., but also the under underestimation around the deployment, because not only is there some limitations around sites for uh in terms of green space, but also in terms of infrastructure. And so if there was an undersizing of the site to begin with, then obviously expansion could be cost prohibitive or even you know impossible to some extent. I've I've been a part of projects in the past where just getting incoming service to a site was was more than the cost of the chargers and the cost of the electrical construction. So you mentioned, you know, your background is as an electrical contractor, so you're an electrician by trades. I'm sure look, you know, looking at the a deployment from the standpoint of economics and and not only you know mentioning speed, you've probably seen money getting burned up during deployment delays and and not necessarily just labor, you know, permitting drag, equipment that's idle, utility coordination, et cetera. But um, you know, what what really gets the projects off off or derailed, you might say, and and behind schedule from your perspective, you know, kind of looking at from uh you know your background as a as a contractor.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

I think it's um what the customer wants versus reality can be somewhat skewed. So the customer might want five rapid charges. You look at it and then you start drawing up, well, this is where we'd locate them on site. Then you go back to the grid and say, look, we want like this this kind of size connection, and there's nothing available in that that local area. And then you're kind of the bad guy to go back to the client and say you can't have those five charges you wanted, or at least you can't have them powered by the grid because either capacity's not there or it's cost prohibitive prohibitive. There are other solutions available like battery storage on site. Again, you you need that physical space, triple charge of battery storage to to power some rapid charges. But again, you're looking at large CapEc for the for these kind of solutions. So customer really wants it, they can have it, but it it can really um slow down business in terms of where you thought that job was going to come in and it was gonna be a five charger job, and now it's completely strike through on the list and move on to the next one.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Yeah. When you talk about expansion or or the sizing constraints, you know, to your point of five rapid chargers, this is what we want. When when we kind of take a step back, and and this has come up on the show a few times where early on DC deployments charging, rapid charging was defined as you know, 50 kilowatts of output. So obviously 50 kilowatts is is you know, we didn't even take a look at that today. I mean, unless maybe inside of a fleet depot context, there there's certainly uh an application in that sense, but you know, public retail you know, charging those destinations. And it would seem that EV Blocks is has understood that chargers change over time and what's deployed probably may not be there. Where I could see that evblocks is is needing to design a product that accommodates the size, the site, but also, like I said, the the difference in footprints and the different sizing of the charger. I don't know. Would you would would you agree with that maybe sometimes, at least early on, many sites were being built, like that charger that was installed would be the one that is there forever without considerations for technology changes.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Yeah, we've we've seen that a lot, like you say, where people think, well, now we've got EV chargers, that's it, we're done. And it actually, the reality is some sites we're seeing where they're on the third version of an EV charger being installed. Now, where they're on a concrete pad, that kind of concrete pad either looks like a piece of Swiss cheese because it's had multiple holes with multiple fixing arrangements put on it, or they've had to break it out and start again and recast that. The sites where they've used our product, they've been able to just remove the adapter plate, put on a new adapter plate and fix the new pedestal and fix arrangements to that new plate. There's another benefit in terms of lease sites as well, where they're actually able to take the hardware away and leave um adapter plate in place so there's no hold in the ground, there's no cables sticking up out of the ground. When that lease is handed back over, you know, they're they're asked to put the building back to what it was. At least it's pretty safe condition that would be acceptable to a landlord.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Yeah, and I would see that with the deployment. I mean, I I'm thinking of literally two projects that are on our you know in our pipeline right now where it's literally the demo of a site. It's not the replacement of the chargers, it's not upgrading the chargers, but it's the demolition of the site because the site is closed and the chargers that are there are aged and legacy units, and the the incoming tenants not you know, not unknown at this point. So the owner of the property is like, let's scrub the site. And so we're gonna get, you know, we've already done the site assessment. There's no EV blocks, there's nothing there. You know, there's it's we're literally gonna be tearing up concrete, we're gonna be cutting bollards, and where that where the you know the the space, the cavity of that, the charger that's gonna be left, we're gonna be left with having to address that. And it's not just you know pulling the wire and cap and conduit, but we're gonna have to address the the footprint because of where it sits there in relation to the site. So yeah, I uh you know that the I find that the solution that EV Blocks has brought to market is is compelling and important from a deployment standpoint, which is why I wanted to get you know get you on the show and and talk about it. I I'm curious about when you when you brought EV Blocks uh to the US, uh, when when you came in to this market, what what did you encounter? What was the market, was the market immediately receptive to the solution, or were were people trying to understand where your product's value sat in the in the value chain, where how they would use your was kind of that reaction to your solution?

SPEAKER_00 14:59

Yeah, so we had we launched in the US at uh the Nika show in in Texas a few years ago. Uh we had an interesting response from from contractors who came to visit the stand, and they were they were kind of like it was early doors for them. So uh they're like, this is a good idea. And then where we saw government subsidies or support for EV charging, those states in particular, we see a rapid takeoff in terms of sales for EV blocks. Um, but where there wasn't that kind of support, it was less, less obvious that much EV was was happening.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

It makes sense. It would almost seem like there was a a conversation that already had to have been happening for your solution to make the most sense and the value of your solution to to kind of resonate with the with the site. That's that's fair. It makes sense. Um even in in some of the regions where EV adoption is is further along than other parts of the country, there's still misunderstandings around product, there's still gaps in in the knowledge base around deployment and infrastructure and what it really means to deploy level two chargers or DC fast chargers, even in the wide gap. I can't, you know, we've all experienced it where, you know, we get we get a call, we've got someone that wants to to deploy chargers and you know, pricing that's been forecast around that site for DC is is not even not even up to par for a level two deployment, much less DC fast charger. I've heard of budgets being allocated for DC deployments and the cost alone to to cover cabling and conduit wasn't even really there. But uh yeah, it's it's there there's a knowledge gap. So I could see where you'd have an immediate reaction to to the product. So um, you know, I wanted to get off into the conversation around reliability and and maintenance and and kind of the the hidden cost of future problems, unknowns, the unknowns, the unknown unknowns. A lot of uptime conversations are focused on software or or hardware failure. That's kind of where things get get, you know, they're obvious, they're seen. But how much of the future maintenance pains are evident from your perspective that really starts with bad site planning or or maybe rushed deployment decisions during construction?

SPEAKER_00 17:12

Yeah, we see this um more often than what we'd like to, where contractors, especially when I was contracting and we were delivering where we were not responsible for doing the civil engineering part, we would go to site and the bases would not be level, or the actual finish of the concrete pad was pretty poor. Um either it was you know not that strong for actually putting the fix-ins in for the the concrete slab where they've just not put enough cement into the mix when they've been making that pad, or like I say, just a really rough and poor, poor condition. You can't get the pedestal level without shimming it up, so it looks like a bit of a dog's dinner. And we that kind of has a knock-on effect. So we're I'm sending electricians to a site, they're ringing me up, they're sending me photos of this is the condition of the pad. What do you want us to do? Do you want to terminate here? And then we're into abortive visit costs. So we've got sunk costs in terms of guys going out the door, fuel, potentially hotel rooms to then do a revisit. Now, yeah, you're gonna get paid if you've got a good client, but you're gonna have that difficult conversation with gone to site as per your request, but your civil engineering element is really poor. So the extra bill for the end user or the client, they're not gonna be happy about that. Plus the guys don't want to go to work, they don't want to be just travelling up and down the motorway or freeway. So the blocks, with it being kind of scalable and consistent every time, just eliminates uh any of that grey area. The electricians know what they're gonna turn up to every time. And they before they've even got out of the van, you already know what kit they're gonna need straight to it. So that's kind of that was one of the nice bits that we were finding when we were deploying the blocks and and the chargers alike. And I think it also allows you to then quickly change the the hardware if required. It's a pretty straightforward, simple, simple process, and also if you need to pull in additional cables through that conduit system, you've got good access all the way through. Because the EV box, not only are they a foundation for the EV charger, but they're a good place for access, like cable chambers for pulling the cables through. So kind of a two-in-one.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

I'd be curious about your perspective from well, as like I said, we you're in you're in Europe. Europe um is further along in terms of adoption and has been generally, at least from my perspective and from what I've heard, never really worked in that market. But just from my learnings, it's it seems that the European market has generally been able to deploy charging infrastructure faster and more efficiently than perhaps here in the US. And I I would be curious about your opinion. What is what is driving that? Is it is it policy? Is it construction methods? Is it the way the utility is is engaged or supportive of the deployment? What does that look like? How is how has that been seemingly deployed more efficiently?

SPEAKER_00 20:04

I think this is my personal opinion. I think it comes down to the the user experience in terms of energy and fuel is getting so expensive here that it the argument not to do it is getting less and less. So it's getting cheaper to deploy solar panels on your house. Those solar panels can charge a car. The fuel duty on UK fuel is phenomenal. So if you can charge a car with sunlight, you're gonna you're gonna start going looking down that route and you're gonna thinking, yeah, do you know what? This is makes a lot more sense. And then that drives the adoption in terms of demand for electric vehicles, and then the the guys putting in the heavy infrastructure could see that demand, and then they really want to get get to it. That's where we've seen a lot of big players in the DC market buying up land parcels and delivering TV charging hubs and raising large amounts of money to develop good sized networks of electric car charging.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

I know when we're working with an emerging CPO or an aspirational CPO or or someone, you know, for whatever reason, they they've decided to get into the charging business and they're they're looking at sites. I I can imagine that you've, from your perspective, maybe have seen some differences. And I I'd be curious what differences do you notice between maybe mature infrastructure buyers versus new entrants in the European market? What questions do, you know, from your deployment, because you've been deploying chargers, you've been in in that, and what what questions do it do you see that experienced operators know to ask that maybe inexperienced deployers um or buyers uh completely overlook?

SPEAKER_00 21:38

I think uh the smart guys here in the UK, they're they're looking at the land parcels in terms of volume of traffic going past that location and grid connection from the get go before they've even made an offer on the land or or got close to that parcel or that you know, that proposal. They did a lot of research before they even you know put a pen to paper. Or start typing an email to say we're interested in this piece of land.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

What happens when deployment really scales? And you can you can answer this from the perspective of maybe the US or or your market or both. But maybe from from the start, maybe if the if the US actually was to reach deployment numbers that everyone is looking towards maybe 2030, 2035, or at least that is comparable to other parts of the globe. What what would have to break or change in our current system? And that's really from the US perspective. And maybe what operational changes do we need that is used in in maybe Europe? What needs to happen in that respect so for us to get you know get to the next uh get around this curve and onto the next?

SPEAKER_00 22:41

I think I'm relatively new in terms of driving electric vehicle day to day. The biggest rub for me is kind of that user experience. Some of the fast chargers, like Tesla, for example, turn up, plug in, thanks very much, charge my car, like charge my card. That's the kind of experience we want to kind of get to. There's other chargers, plug in, authenticate, you know, on and off, charge. That's pretty good. And then there's others where I've had experience where you need to download this app, scan this QR code, muck around, and um I'd rather not charge. I'll find somewhere else. So I think making it seamless for the user is one. And the other is hate to say it's more education or more like you drive an electric car, these things are fast. Like real fast. Um people still don't they think electric car is like oh you know, it's gonna be okay. This thing will, you know, they'll put you in the back of your seat, no problem. Yeah. So that I think that's kind of cool as kind of a petrol head, you know, to have converted over to electric vehicles. Seen that actually I actually like driving an electric vehicle now. And people having the ability to test drive these these cars and and and trucks and stuff like that and actually try them out and live with them for a bit. I think once you've tried it it's kind of kind of nice, and you don't want to go back to petrol or diesel. All the little toys in the middle of the winter when your windows screen's covered in ice, you go out, the car's already preconditioned, warm. It's like, yeah, bro, great. Um, nice little features like that just makes it a lot better. And you're not walking through a cloud of diesel in the morning whilst you've been waiting for the windscreen to defrost. So yeah, education of electric cars can do the range that they taught with that it says on the dashboard. Um comfortable, quick. The charging experience, certainly here in the UK, has changed a lot recently, where it's a lot easier to just get in a car and don't even think about where you're gonna charge. Because there's a lot of charge points. You that confidence level of I'm not gonna get stranded is there. So yeah, people's confidence in not getting not getting stuck. Um those are gonna be my my big ones, I think.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

Mm-hmm. To your point of the acceleration. Um, I know again, going back to the reference of my rental this past weekend, trying to change lanes, trying to navigate through an urban area and get up and get in the right lane that I needed to be in to get on down the road. And I was, you know, conditioned to the fast acceleration of my electric vehicles. And wow, when I put my foot in the pedal and was trying to merge over and get get down the road, I just bogged down. I was like, wow, you you shift from from EV back to uh you know a petrol vehicle or you know, diesel powered vehicle. Well, maybe not so much diesel, depending on what what what truck it is, but yeah, you might get hurt trying to get over because whereas the you know the Tesla's gone, it's already over and moved and down the road. But yeah, well, Trevor, I I appreciate you you coming on field frequency and and sharing some time with us uh today. For those that are watching, obviously they can see evblocks.com on your shirt, uh, but for those that are listening, how could they connect with you? Learn more about evblocks, learn more from you about what you're doing in in your market locally. And then of course, you may mention evblocks has what 20 distribution centers here in here in the US. For those that want to connect with you, obviously, evblocks.com, but where else can can can folks that are listening connect with you, Trevor?

SPEAKER_00 26:06

Yeah, so we yeah, we've got production locations across the US, Canada, France, Australia, and here in the UK and Ireland. We are very active on LinkedIn and on Instagram, so you can find us on there as well. Just same kind of handle with EV Blocks.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Very good. And just curious, what's what's lead time for most of your product line? What's lead time?

SPEAKER_00 26:24

Yeah, so here in the UK, you can have it tomorrow. Wow. Wow. In the US, it's it's between one and two days in the US if you are really in the jam. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

So tomorrow in in Europe and one to two days in in the US, that's uh that's a pretty slick lead time. You're you're gonna be way ahead of the Chargers as far as the their readiness to ship to site. So you're ready to go today, sounds like that's good. Trevor, thanks for being on Field Frequency. It was uh it was a pleasure to have you.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

All right, thanks, Jason. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

This episode was produced and edited by the team at Autozi. To find out more, visit autosy.co a u t o z y dot co.