Fully Charged Live & Robert Llewllyn’s Partnership with myenergi

Some of you may recognise Robert Llewellyn from TV game show Scrapheap Challenge or sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf. But to myenergi, the now-host of the Fully Charged YouTube channel is a close friend and partner.

What is Fully Charged?

Produced and hosted by actor, writer and comedian Robert Llewllyn, Fully Charged is a YouTube channel about electric automobiles and “how we generate and even own the electricity to power these machines.”

From reviewing electric cars and motor shows to analysing environmentally friendly batteries, Fully Charged covers a variety of topics in the renewables and green energy sector.

This, of course, ties in perfectly with the myenergi mission to create a sustainable future through compassionate technology, which brings us to the story of how Jordan, our Sales Director and Co-Founder, met Robert for the first time…

Where it all began

Our collaboration with Robert Llewellyn and Fully Charged Live began when Jordan ventured up to Orkney, Scotland, to support the event of Eco Cars’ Jonathan Porterfield, our first-ever customer and fantastic myenergi advocate.

“I became friends with Jonathan through Twitter; he loved myenergi and was one of our earliest adopters, having bought the zappi via crowdfunding,” says Jordan. “I was very keen to head up to Orkney to support Jonathan’s event, and he told me that there was a good chance Robert Llewllyn would be there.”

While excited at the prospect of meeting Robert, “a great advocate for renewable energy and EVs”, Jordan’s primary mission was to enjoy the event her friend had put so much work into organising.

Travelling in true myenergi style, Jordan made the almost-600 mile trip up to Orkney in an early model of the electric Nissan Leaf; this was the first time our Co-Founder had driven an EV.

“It was 24 hours of solid driving; pure exhaustion,” she says. “I ended up missing my ferry the first time, which was a bad start. However, by chance, I ended up on Robert Llewellyn’s ferry the following day, meaning I had a good 90 minutes with him on the crossing.

“I went up and introduced myself, we got chatting and I asked to get a picture. I then told him I had a product to show him later; at first he was rather nonchalant because he must get that all the time, but when we got to the event and I showed him the zappi, his attitude changed. ‘Oh my god, I’ve heard about this,’ I remember him saying rather excitedly.”

As it turned out, Jonathan had been singing the praises of myenergi to Robert prior to the event, so much so that the former Scrapheap Challenge host could not wait to see how it worked.

Appearing on Fully Charged’s YouTube channel

As soon as Jordan got the zappi out of her car and in front of Robert, he fell in love with it.

“He wanted to get it in front of his Fully Charged audience there and then, before we had even started production at myenergi HQ,” says Jordan. Much to her delight and shock, Robert’s words were: “Don’t tell me anything about it; I want to film an episode this weekend and I’ll ask you everything on camera!”

“I was just hoping to meet him, but it all snowballed from there,” says Jordan. “The YouTube video was an amazing opportunity as he has such a targeted audience in the hundreds of thousands across the UK, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, the US… you can’t buy that sort of exposure.”

While thrilled with the opportunity, Jordan is the first to admit that she was “terrified in front of the camera”, but Robert soon put her at ease with his professionalism, friendliness and approachability.

“Oh my god, that is amazing,” Robert said the moment Jordan began the demonstration and our zappi started working its magic. “It is a classic no-brainer. Fantastic.”

After the initial interview between Robert and Jordan was filmed, we sent Robert his very own zappi to install at home. So impressed by its usability and efficiency, he recorded additional footage for the episode, in which he said:

“It’s a really brilliant thing. Check out the website; they’re really clever electronic engineers and the product is beautifully made. Zappi chargers are brilliant.”

The video was broadcast on YouTube in October, just a month before we launched, and gained over 168,000 views and hundreds of comments. The interest was so high that it actually crashed our website! You can watch it in full using the link below:

zappi smart EV charger | Fully Charged

Falling in love with zappi

At myenergi, we absolutely adore our superb customers and wonderful advocates. Robert is now both.

“Robert is the same as us,” says Jordan, “he’s got solar panels and electric cars and is very much an early adopter. He just found the exact same problem as many others: that his EV would charge when it’s sunny but if you turn anything else on or off or if it’s cloudy, you’re going to start pulling power from the grid.

“Zappi is such a simple idea, but they’re always the best ones. It solves a problem many people had but did not know how to solve.”

If you’d like to learn more about Green Energy, check out our self-consumption of energy guide.

Working together with Robert Llewllyn

Since meeting for the first time in Orkney, filming the Fully Charged episode, and providing Robert with a zappi, myenergi and the renewables enthusiast have remained close industry friends, with Fully Charged and myenergi growing together simultaneously.

“Robert’s company and myenergi were both in their infancy when we met, but we’ve grown together at the same speed so have always remained close,” Jordan says. “We didn’t pay for any of the exposure that episode gave us – Robert does not do paid advertising, he only does what he believes in – so we insisted on gifting him with a zappi instead.”

Sharing the start-up experience and an enthusiasm for renewables were what brought Jordan and Robert together, but Jordan attributes the strong partnership between both brands to one shared mission…

“We’re all wanting the same thing: for people to adopt renewable energy and electric vehicles. They’re the perfect synergy of industries and it’s so important with this massive climate crisis that we’re experiencing.”

What next for myenergi, Fully Charged and Robert Llewllyn?

Last year, we were very proud sponsors of Fully Charged Live 2018, the first event of its kind. With over 6,000 attendees at Silverstone, alongside demonstrations, speakers and displays, it truly was an excellent, inspiring event.

“We were always completely behind Fully Charged Live; we wanted to do anything we could to help Robert’s business,” Jordan says. “I am extremely grateful for his enthusiasm towards myenergi, while he too was humbled by the exposure the zappi interview got for his channel.”

Since last year’s event, Robert attended our launch event for the new zappi to show his continued support. Meanwhile, we’ve been planning for Fully Charged Live 2019, which takes place on 7th, 8th and 9th June.

We will be running competitions and demonstrations throughout the day next to the main theatre. Look out for the myenergi team and stand, as we’ll be demonstrating our exciting new V2 zappi (set to launch in July). We’ll also be giving away a special surprise – don’t miss out!