What do Napoleon’s tomb, the oldest living land animal and an Easee EV charger have in common? They can all be found on the far-flung island of St. Helena, one of the most remote islands on the planet.

St. Helena

  • Located 2000 km off the South West coast of Africa
  • Population of approximately 4000 “Saints”
  • Famously known as the place of Napoleon Bonaparte’s exile and death 
  • Home to Jonathan, a 192 year old tortoise 

The small island community has been less reliant than most on modern technology, with even cellular service only being introduced in 2015.

Now, the St. Helena Government is looking to switch the majority of the island’s power to renewable wind, solar, and tidal energy, while encouraging uptake of electric cars by offering tax-free import incentives to its residents.

From diesel to renewables

– We are hugely reliant at this current state on diesel and spend about 5 million pounds a year bringing diesel in. We’re looking to transition to more renewable energy production,” says Mark Brook, Minister of Treasury and Economic Development, St. Helena Government.

An important part of this shift is to move away from fossil fuel vehicles, but like everywhere else there were some concerns about the practicalities of EVs and how they would perform on the rugged island terrain.

To test this, Easee and Subaru UK in collaboration with the St. Helena Government provided a charger and an electric vehicle to be used in a two-month public trial.

An Easee One EV charger was installed by a local electrician beside the island’s Museum in the capital, Jamestown and was connected to the St. Helena grid by an island power provider.

EV charger installation on St. Helena island

Once fully charged, the 2024 Subaru Solterra drove approximately 50 miles on the network of undulating, and in places narrow and rocky, roads around the island, using only 20% of its battery capacity.

Electric SUV driving in the mountainous terrain on St. Helena

Remote stress testing

Adam Rogers, Managing Director of Easee UK is enthusiastic about the project:

– This has been a real live test bed for us because the electricians are so far away, and the charger is so far away. It allows us to stress test a lot of our systems, be that the data connection to the charger, to see if we can fix something so remote. We believe that location shouldn’t be an issue for where chargers are installed. So, to be able to supply chargers into St. Helena is a really interesting and exciting opportunity for us.

Mark Brooks shares more on St. Helena Government’s plans:  

– We want to incentivise people bringing in more electric vehicles so installing electric chargers and putting in the infrastructure, we can then work on policies to try and increase the electric vehicle fleet on the island.

The Easee charger will remain on St. Helena as part of an expanding charging network being installed for a fleet of electric cars being imported for tourists and the local community to use.